2nd Indiana Cavalry

Organized at Indianapolis, Ind., September 20, 1861. Left State for Louisville, Ky., December 15, 1861; thence moved to Camp Wickliffe, Ky. Attached to Cavalry 4th Division, Army of the Ohio, to June, 1862. Cavalry Brigade, Army of the Ohio, to September, 1862. 1st Brigade, Cavalry Division, Army of the Ohio, to November, 1862. 1st Brigade, Cavalry Division, Army of the Cumberland, to January, 1863. 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Army of the Cumberland, to October, 1864. 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, Wilson's Cavalry Corps, Military Division of the Mississippi, to July, 1865.

SERVICE. — Action at Bowling Green, Ky., February 1, 1862 (Co. "H"). Movement to Nashville, Tenn., February 14-25. Occupation of Nashville February 25. March to Pittsburg Landing, Tenn., March 10-April 8. Reconnoissance in force April 22. Advance on and siege of Corinth, Miss., April 29-May 30. Tuscumbia Creek May 31-June 1. Pursuit to Booneville June 1-3. Osborn and Wolf's Creeks June 4. Buell's Campaign in North Alabama and Middle Tennessee June to August. Raid on Louisville & Nashville R. R. August 19-21 (Detachment). Humboldt Road, near Gallatin, August 21. Murfreesboro, Tenn., August 20-25-27 and September 7. Crab Orchard, Ky., September 10. Vinegar Hill September 22. Near Nashville October 1. Near Perryville, Ky., October 6-7. Chaplin Hills, Perryville, October 8. Near Mountain Gap, Ky., October 14-16. Big Rockcastle River, near Mt. Vernon, October 16. New Haven October 29. Capture of 3rd Georgia Cavalry. Hartsville, Tenn., November 28 and December 7. Regiment complimented in special field orders for recapture of Government train and 200 prisoners. Advance on Murfreesboro December 26-30 (Co. "M"). Lavergne December 26-27 (Co. "M"). Operations near Lavergne December 29-31 (Co. "M"). Battle of Stone's River December 30-31, 1862, and January 1-3, 1863 (Co. "M"). Duty near Nashville, Tenn., till June, 1863. Murfreesboro March 10. Shelbyville Pike, near Murfreesboro, June 6. Triune June 9 and 11. Middle Tennessee (or Tullahoma) Campaign June 23-July 7. Middleton June 24. Guy's Gap, Fosterville and Shelbyville June 27. Bethpage Bridge, Elk River, July 1. Occupation of Middle Tennessee till August 16. Expedition to Huntsville July 13-22. Passage of Cumberland Mountains and Tennessee River and Chickamauga (Ga.) Campaign August 16-September 22. Reconnoissance toward Rome September 11. Alpine September 12. Dirt Town, LaFayette Road, near Chattooga River, September 12. Reconnoissance from Lee and Gordon's Mills toward LaFayette and skirmish September 13. Near Stevens' Gap September 18. Battle of Chickamauga, Ga., September 19-21. Missionary Ridge and Shallow Ford Gap September 22. Operations against Wheeler and Roddy September 30-October 17. Fayetteville October 13-14. Duty along Nashville & Chattanooga R. R. till December. Operations about Dandridge and Mossy Creek December 24-28. Peck's House, near New Market, December 24. Mossy Creek December 26. Talbot Station December 28. Mossy Creek, Talbot Station, December 29. Regiment reenlisted January 10, 1864. Near Mossy Creek January 11-12. Operations about Dandridge January 16-17. Bend of Chucky Road, near Dandridge, January 16. Dandridge January 17. Operations about Dandridge January 26-28. Fair Garden January 27. Swann's Island January 28. Near Marysville February 8. Atlanta (Ga.) Campaign May 1 to September 8. Varnell's Station May 7 and 9. Demonstrations on Dalton May 9-13. Tilton May 13. Battle of Resaca May 14-15. Cassville May 19. Stilesborough May 23. Burnt Hickory May 24. Battles about Dallas May 25-June 5. Ackworth June 3-4. Big Shanty June 6. Operations about Marietta and against Kenesaw Mountain June 10-July 2. Lost Mountain June 15-17. Assault on Kenesaw June 27. Nickajack Creek July 2-5. Chattahoochie River July 5-17. Siege of Atlanta July 22-August 25. McCook's Raid on Atlanta & West Point R. R. July 27-31. Lovejoy Station July 29-30. Clear Creek July 30. Newnan July 30. Expedition to Jasper August 11-15. Flank movement on Jonesboro August 25-30. Rousseau's pursuit of Wheeler September 1-8. Consolidated to a Battalion of 4 Companies September 14. Cartersville September 20. Camp Creek September 30. Operations against Hood in North Georgia and North Alabama October. Moved to Louisville, Ky., to refit. Pursuit of Lyon from Paris, Ky., to Hopkinsville, Ky., December 6, 1864, to January 15, 1865. Hopkinsville, Ky., December 16, 1864. Moved to Nashville, Tenn., duty there till February, 1865, and at Waterloo, Ala., till March. Wilson's Raid from Chickasaw, Ala., to Macon, Ga., March 22-April 24. Near Scottsville and Selma April 2. Near Hinton April 10. Montgomery April 12. Columbus Road, near Tuskegee, April 14. West Point and near Opelika April 16. Capture of Macon April 20. Duty at Macon and in the Dept. of Georgia till June. Moved to Nashville, Tenn., and there mustered out July 12, 1865.

Regiment lost during service 4 Officers and 38 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 3 Officers and 211 Enlisted men by disease. Total 256.

SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1104

Gerrit Smith to the voters of the Counties of Oswego and Madison, New York, November 5, 1852

To the voters of the Counties of Oswego and Madison.—You nominated me for a seat in Congress, notwithstanding I besought you not to do so. In vain was my resistance to your persevering and unrelenting purpose.

I had reached old age. I had never held office. Nothing was more foreign to my expectations, and nothing was more foreign to my wishes, than the holding of office. My multiplied and extensive affairs gave me full employment. My habits, all formed in private life, all shrank from public life. My plans of usefulness and happiness could be carried out only in the seclusion in which my years had been spent.

My nomination, as I supposed it would, has resulted in my election, — and that too, by a very large majority. And now, I wish that I could resign the office which your partiality has accorded to me. But I must not — I cannot. To resign it would be a most ungrateful and offensive requital of the rare generosity, which broke through your strong attachments of party, and bestowed your votes on one the peculiarities of whose political creed leave him without a party. Very rare, indeed, is the generosity, which was not to be repelled by a political creed, among the peculiarities of which are:

1. That it acknowledges no law and knows no law for slavery; that not only is slavery not in the federal constitution, but that, by no possibility could it be brought either into the federal or into a State constitution.

2. That the right to the soil is as natural, absolute and equal as the right to the light and air.

3. That political rights are not conventional but natural, — inhering in all persons, the black as well as the white, the female as well as the male.

4. That the doctrine of free trade is the necessary outgrowth of the doctrine of the human brotherhood; and that to impose restrictions on commerce is to build up unnatural and sinful barriers across that brotherhood.

5. That national wars are as brutal, barbarous and unnecessary as are the violence and bloodshed to which misguided and frenzied individuals are prompted; and that our country should, by her own Heaven-trusting and beautiful example, hasten the day when the nations of the earth “shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

6. That the province of government is but to protect — to protect persons and property; and that the building of railroads and canals and the care of schools and churches fall entirely outside of its limits, and exclusively within the range of “the voluntary principle.” Narrow however as are those limits, every duty within them is to be promptly, faithfully, fully performed: — as well, for instance, the duty on the part of the federal government to put an end to the dram-shop manufacture of paupers and madmen in the city of Washington, as the duty on the part of the State government to put an end to it in the State.

7. That as far as practicable, every officer, from the highest to the lowest, including especially the President and Postmaster, should be elected directly by the people.

I need not extend any further the enumerations of the features of my peculiar political creed; and I need not enlarge upon the reason which I gave why I must not and cannot resign the office which you have conferred upon me. I will only add that I accept it; that my whole heart is moved to gratitude by your bestowment of it; and that, God helping me, I will so discharge its duties as neither to dishonor myself nor you.

Gerrit Smith.

Peterboro, November 5, 1852.

SOURCES: Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Gerrit Smith: A Biography, p. 215-6

Amos A. Lawrence to Governor John W. Geary

To secure the adoption in all parts of the Territory of the best system of public schools seems to be desirable at this early day, and I have a plan to communicate to some one or two who have the leisure to attend to its execution. Some funds which I intended for the proposed university will be better used for the present for this purpose; and if the government should make adequate provisions for the former, no private contributions would be required. In the centre of this continent there should be a model State which shall be an example to all; a model for those which come in hereafter to copy, and a stimulant to the old States to keep up a high standard of learning, virtue, and patriotism.

SOURCE: William Lawrence, Life of Amos A. Lawrence: With Extracts from His Diary and Correspondence, p. 119-20

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Continued from: Thomas Wentworth Higginson, December 3, 1857

[From Hamilton, Canada, the record continues:]

What's the use of going to England and using up excitement, all at once, when one can come to Canada and get enough here? I am as distinctly a foreigner here as in Sebastopol, and circumstances have enabled me to enjoy the experience more fully than I expected. . . .

Behold me, then, domesticated at the City Hotel. Not a Yankee in it but myself — all straight, solid Englishmen, with deep, clear voices emerging from their fur-covered chests. Everybody's made handsome by a fur cap without a vizor, the most picturesque thing possible. The rooms of the hotel are dark, solidly furnished, and hung with colored prints of horses, races, and mail-coaches. The long dining-hall has a large painting of the Queen at one end, of the British arms at the side, with many others of various merit. At dinner each guest is offered a tall, narrow glass of foaming ale. No other gustatory novelty save macaroni pudding. I wish to chronicle, however, that I never saw guests eat faster in America — I mean the United States. Also I never had a scantier supply of water and towels — far inferior to Niagara, though, to be sure, water is what people come there for.

I am now writing in the Institute News Room and Library. Little bluff Canadian boys in fur caps are coming in for books to my kind and busy friend Mr. Milne (pronounced Mellen) . . . and a group of sturdy seniors are debating the £1000 which the city has just voted toward the fund for relieving the wives and children of those killed in the Russian War.

Hamilton is a city nearly as large as Worcester and growing rapidly, but with nothing in the least resembling its apparent life. A set of English and Scotch merchants, old and young, congregate in this Reading Room, which has a sort of provincial or Little Pedlington air. For instance there are six little tables, with chessboards on top; — conceive of persons with time to play chess in New England!

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

I had a fine afternoon walk up the mountain west of the city. . . . At the top I passed a tollgate and stopped to read the inscriptions; the tolls were very complicated — distinction made between private and hired teams, and between the width of tire of different wheels. Below, in large letters, “Clergymen and Funerals gratis” I preferred to pass, however, neither as a clergyman nor as a funeral, but as a foot-passenger.

[Continued HERE.]

SOURCE: Mary Potter Thacher Higginson, Editor, Letters and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1846-1906, p. 95-7

George L. Stearns to Mary Hall Stearns, June 17, 1861

I wrote you a long letter last night. To-day I have obtained for Collamore an order from the Secretary of War for three Kansas regiments, including all their supplies, to be furnished by the United States. Of one William A. Phillips is to be colonel, and Stewart one of the captains. It will be the crack regiment of that state. I have also laid my plan for sending off the fugitives. F. P. Blair, Sr., approves and will aid the enterprise, remarking it will never do to return them to bondage. I am happy.

SOURCE: Preston Stearns, The Life and Public Services of George Luther Stearns, p. 251

Samuel Gridley Howe to Theodore Parker, Thursday, April 1851

[Envelope addressed;]

The Reverend

Thunder And Lightning

Parker

Everywhere

SUNNYSIDE, Thursday, April, 1851.

My Dear Parker: — I am never well, but for three days past I have been quite under the weather, and such weather!

I am unable to go out, but my chickens have been counting so fondly upon going to your house that I cannot disappoint them.

You will give me credit for usually refraining from shocking your modesty by expressing my views and feelings about your writings, and you will now excuse my saying a word that I must say to somebody. Never in the whole course of my reading have I met with anything that moved the deepest depths of my soul as did the closing part of your Fast Day discourse. It is truly the thunder and lightning of eloquence! It has all the material majesty, power and beauty of Byron's thunder storm in the Alps; — the resistless strength, — the rushing swiftness, — the dazzling light, and the whole dignified and intensified by the moral element of which it is the war. Not “from peak to peak the rattling crags among,” but from heart to heart “leaps the live thunder;” not “every mountain now hath found a tongue,” but every high and towering passion of man's soul; not “Jura answers through her misty shroud, back to the joyous Alps,” but the great spirit of humanity, rending the veil of conventionalism, shouts back “Amen! Amen! and God bless you,” — to you her minister and interpreter.

Excuse, my dear Parker, a fruitless attempt to describe what I have no language to describe, — the effect upon me of your sublime discourse. Tell me you are not destructive? Ha! had not God stored up in your soul a great store of the wrath and indignation with which He wars upon sin, and given you an opportunity of using it without your benevolence to restrain you, we should never have witnessed such a storm and whirlwind as that in which you have come down upon the wicked.

But I can hardly sit up and must not write, or I too shall get up steam, and having no strength of boiler shall explode like the — the — frog in the fable. Regards to Madame and Miss S.

Ever thine,

S. G. Howe.

SOURCE: Laura E. Richards, Editor, Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe, Volume 2, p. 346-7

Braxton Bragg to William T. Sherman, December 16, 1859

Thibodeaux, La., December 16, 1859.

My Dear Sherman: I received your letter from the city. Had your visit only been a week later I could have met you, as my confinement is over for the present. My crop was finished on the 12th, and is by far the most profitable one I have made-giving me a net profit of $30,000 on an investment of $145,000.

On the first Monday, January second, I intend in Baton Rouge to enter on the duties of an office to which I am just elected, “Commissioner of the Board of Public Works,” a new office in this state, but the duties are old, have been discharged heretofore by swamp land commissioner, engineers, etc. The new board is to form a bureau for the general supervision and control of all state work, to appoint all officers and agents, etc. The duties are heavy, expenditures large (over $1,000,000 a year) and the patronage extensive.

Peculations, frauds, swindling and ignorance all combined to render the previous system obnoxious, and I am told the new law was intended to clear off the whole debris, that a new state of affairs might be inaugurated. I did not and do not wish the office, as it gives no prominence and little compensation, but friends, principally Richard Taylor, son of the old general, pressed me to accept a nomination, as they could find no other man whose name could defeat the rogues. Under this pressure I gave up my privacy, and shall strive to inaugurate an honest administration of affairs.

If I do no more I shall at least deserve the thanks and probably receive the maledictions of many who do not or will not understand the merits of my conduct. How long the duties will retain me in Baton Rouge on my first visit I can not foresee; but long enough I hope, to see many members of the legislature. I believe I have some influence with R. Taylor,¹ the senator from this district, and I will try to intrest him in the Seminary. He is a very plain, straightforward man, of great independence, candid, honest and clearheaded. Whatever he promises we may rely on, as he has great influence. I have but few others to look to as acquaintances now, except the senator from Terrebonne, F. S. Goode, who is like Taylor, and with whom I shall intercede. The representatives from this parish are very poor sticks and unreliable.

We must try and secure an additional allowance or an appropriation to pay for the sixteen state cadets. I clearly see that you will need funds very soon, unless this can be done, for the people of the country are not yet sufficiently aware of the institution and its plan, etc., to patronize it beyond your suggestion. In time I have no doubt, if we can sustain it in its infancy, it will become popular and self-supporting. In the meantime, we must try to harmonize conflicting interests and opinions.

We all aim at the same great end — to furnish the most suitable and most useful education to the rising young men of our state. High literary institutions are growing up around us in every direction, but in the scientific and military we are sadly deficient. No class of people on the face of the earth are more dependent on science and discipline for success than the southern planters. Scan the whole area of our state and see what proportion of its capital and labor is devoted to science. See our levees, canals, for navigation and drainage; our steamers, our foundries, and last, our plantation machinery. Then apply this science to our soils, and see our woful deficiency and waste in our want of system in cultivation. The very plantation is a small military establishment, or it ought to be. By military I don't mean the old fogy notion of white belts, stiff leather stocks and “palms of the hands to the front,” but discipline, by which we secure system, regularity, method, economy of time, labor and material.

This all tends to secure better health, more labor and less exertion, and with infinitely less punishment, more comfort and happiness to the laborer, and more profit and pleasure to the master. The other consideration weighs no little with me. We have a large class of our population in subordination, just and necessary. Where do we find the fewest mutinies, revolts and rebellions? In the best disciplined commands. Human nature is the same throughout the world. Give us all disciplined masters, managers, and assistants, and we shall never hear of insurrection — unless as an exception — to be suppressed instanter without appeal to foreign aid.

As I shall not have time now to write General Graham, you can show him the foregoing. No consideration can overcome my preference for a military school, but I am open to policy in the course necessary to obtain it. For the present your course is plain, it seems to me. You are an agent selected to carry out the views of others. Your opinion might be expressed as a candid man, but your action should be confined to carrying out the system laid down for your government. When called upon for your views, give them freely. At all other times execute faithfully what is laid down for you. But this is advice I need not give you as from your letters it is the sensible view you have taken of the subject.

The other question, personal to yourself, I can readily see is calculated to make you sensitive and uncomfortable. I hope no one will be so unjust and indelicate as to refer to such a matter, but should it be done, keep silent and refer the matter to your friends. I will answer any such insinuations and vouch for your soundness in any and all ways. I have known you too long and too well to permit a doubt to cross my mind as to the soundness of your views. What sentiments your brother may entertain will be a subject for our representatives at Washington. It is all right and proper that you should wish him success. I do not, of course, know his opinions, but I believe that if he had your experience with us we should have no cause to fear him. His recommendation of that fellow's incendiary work was unfortunate, but I have no doubt was done without reflection or a knowledge of what he was doing, and that he heartily repents of an inconsiderate act. I have not the same charity for a good many of our northern representatives. They go too far, as do some of our own, but they being the aggressors there is some palliation on our side.

Mrs. B. joins me in regards and wishing you every success.

_______________

¹ Richard Taylor, son of President Taylor, later a confederate general. — Ed.

SOURCES: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 80-3

John Brown to George H. Hoyt, November 24, 1859

Charlestown, Jefferson County, Va., Nov. 24, 1859.

George H. Hoyt, Esq.

Dear Sir, — Your kind letter of the 22d instant is received. I exceedingly regret my inability to make you some other acknowledgment for all your efforts in my behalf than that which consists merely in words; but so it is. May God and a good conscience be your continual reward. I really do not see what you can do for me any further. I commend my poor family to the kind remembrance of all friends, but I well understand that they are not the only poor in our world. I ought to begin to leave off saying “our world.” I have but very little idea of the charges made against Mr. Griswold, as I get to see but little of what is afloat. I am very sorry for any wrong that may be done him, but I have no means of contradicting any thing that may be said, not knowing what is said. I cannot see how it should be any more dishonorable for him to receive some compensation for his expenses and service than for Mr. Chilton, and I am not aware that any blame is attached to him on that score. I am getting more letters constantly than I well know how to answer. My kind friends appear to have very wrong ideas of my condition, as regards replying to all the kind communications I receive.

Your friend in truth,

John Brown.

SOURCES: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 601

Joseph C. Bustill to William Still, May 26, 1856

HARRISBURG, May 26, ’56.

FRIEND STILL: — I embrace the opportunity presented by the visit of our friend, John F. Williams, to drop you a few lines in relation to our future operations.

The Lightning Train was put on the Road on last Monday, and as the traveling season has commenced and this is the Southern route for Niagara Falls, I have concluded not to send by way of Auburn, except in cases of great danger; but hereafter we will use the Lightning Train, which leaves here at 1½ and arrives in your city at 5 o'clock in the morning, and I will telegraph about 5½ o'clock in the afternoon, so it may reach you before you close. These four are the only ones that have come since my last. The woman has been here some time waiting for her child and her beau, which she expects here about the first of June. If possible, please keep a knowledge of her whereabouts, to enable me to inform him if he comes. *     *     *     *     *     *     *

I have nothing more to send you, except that John Fiery has visited us again and much to his chagrin received the information of their being in Canada.

Yours as ever,

Jos. C. BUSTILL.

SOURCE: William Still, The Underground Railroad: A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters &c., p. 323

George S. Denison to Salmon P. Chase, September 19, 1862

New Orleans, Sept. 19th, 1862.

Dear Sir: Hon. A. J. Hamilton will present this letter to you, and also a letter of introduction from myself. In this private letter I wish to add a few statements not proper for an open letter.

Mr. Hamilton refused to leave his seat in the House of Representatives, when Texas seceded. After his term expired, he returned to Texas, and has constantly fought secession up to the time of his forced departure from the State.

Mr. Hamilton is well known throughout Western Texas, and probably has more influence there than any other man. He is brave and determined, and stands high in the estimation of all honest men. Whatever statements he makes to you you can rely on implicitly.

Mr. H. thoroughly appreciates the character of the present struggle, and imposes no conditions upon his loyalty. This is the man to make Western Texas a Free State and he will do it wisely and surely. He knows the country and the people and is such an orator as they love to listen to.

Col. Hamilton can raise a Brigade of Union troops in Texas more quickly than any other man in the State, and I believe he only wants an authority to raise such a Brigade when an expedition goes there.

Mr. H. is to Western Texas, what Brownlow, Maynard and Johnson are to East Tennessee.

In common with all Union men of Texas, I hope he will receive that encouragement to which his abilities and unfaltering loyalty entitle him, and under his wise management Western Texas will be freed, at the same time, from rebellion and Slavery.

SOURCE: Diary and correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 314-5

Commandant Samuel F. Dupont to Gustavus V. Fox, October 8, 1861

Astor House, N.Y. Oct. 8, 61.

Dear Mr. Fox

I answered yr telegraph in some haste last evening and write to say that ten days from the seventh will answer or we will make to answer should I be in advance of it, for in my present view and judgment I cannot spare any of the vessels you have so judiciously designated.

2. Captain Blake having signified his willingness that Midshipman Preston should leave the Academy I beg you will order him to Wabash for I greatly want such a person. The signal business alone for such a fleet to avoid separations and collisions &c will occupy one mind. He is also a draughtsman which will be of importance.

3. Please reward old Commodore Gregory's devotion to his gun boats for which I feel greatly indebted, by ordering his son Hugh M. Gregory to Wabash of which I wrote you before.

4. Goldboro' (Florida) wants a Gunner.

5. A Masters Mate to Curlew.

6. The number of contraband at Fortress Monroe was nearly all a sham. Sherman tells me there are only some four hundred men, and Wool says he will not give them up.

7. The QrMaster is bothered about the transportation of their Gun Powder—their fort and siege powder, not the fixed ammunition, they have 2400 bbls! I can take some on the Wabash. Shall I take one of the Barks at the Yard and make a magazine of her to be towed down?

8. Just had a French & Eng. man of war boarded direct from Charleston, had not seen the Wabash — Vandalia and Flag. off Charleston when they left.

9. Gen. Sherman has asked as a favor to him that Lt. Crossman, now in Philad^a. be ordered to some vessel in the exped. he being anxious for service on it. He is a son of the Army Quarter Master of that name and I believe clever.

10. Davis is hard at work and so am I, Rodgers also here, all doing our best, full of hope and spirit.

Yours faithfully

S. F. Dupont.

G. V. Fox Esq.

Ass. Secty.

P.S. Should have written sooner but was told you would be here, until Mr. & Mrs. Blair told me otherwise.

Davis says please not forget Preston.

SOURCE: Robert Means Thompson & Richard Wainwright, Editors, Publications of the Naval Historical Society, Volume 9: Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1861-1865, Volume 1, p. 56-7

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, March 22, 1864

At the Cabinet-meeting Chase manifested a little disturbance of mind at my letter respecting the Ann Hamilton and the Princeton, sent in reply to his somewhat arrogant letter to me. Seward asked him if he had any gold to sell. He said no, if S. wanted to make money he had better get a permit from General Butler to carry in military supplies, and then persuade me to let the vessel pass the blockade. He then made a wholly perverted statement; confounded the two cases; said he never looked behind the military permit, which was sufficient for the Treasury. "But," said I, “General Butler explicitly states that this trading permit to a Baltimorean to trade in North Carolina was based on your 52, 53, and 55 trade regulations, and I should like to know if they will bear that construction.” “Ah,” said he, “the permit was before the regulations were promulgated.” “No,” I replied, “they were distinctly and particularly cited as his authority.”

Chase did not pursue the subject, but tried to pass it off as a joke. His jokes are always clumsy; he is destitute of wit. It was obvious that he was nettled and felt himself in the wrong.

Seward said the Chesapeake had arrived from Halifax under convoy of the revenue cutter [Miami]. This whole thing is ludicrous. A convoy was no more wanted than if the vessel had been in Long Island Sound. But Seward applied to me for a gunboat. I declined and turned him over to the Treasury, if an armed vessel was required to bring the prisoners, which was a part of the case. It is a simple business, but an ostentatious parade and announcement may glorify the State Department.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 544-5

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Lucy Webb Hayes, September 6, 1863

Camp White, September 6, 1863.

Dearest: — How will it suit you to come out here as soon as you have visited Fremont, say in two or three weeks? I would like to have you here before the weather gets too bad. You can leave the boys with their grandmother somewhere and after it is known where we are to winter, I can send for Grandmother and the boys to come also. If we stay here, I will want to keep house for “you all” this winter. If we go too far into the bowels of the land for you to follow, you can return to Grandma and the boys after a suitable visit here.

As things are now it would be very agreeable for you here. I prefer not to have the boys come out until it is quite certain they can stay. If you only staid a week or two, it would be worth while to come. If any change occurs to make it not desirable for you to come, I will write you. In the meantime I hope you will be able to cut your visits short so as to get here by the last week in this month, or sooner if convenient.

I send you enclosed a letter from Mrs. Delany as one of the memorials to be kept with slips from the Catholic Telegraph.

I shall direct this to Columbus hoping however you have started for Fremont. — Love to all.

Affectionately, your

R.

Mrs. Hayes,

Columbus, Ohio.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 433-4

Abraham Lincoln’s Address at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, February 15, 1861

I most cordially thank his Honor Mayor Wilson, and the citizens of Pittsburg generally, for their flattering reception. I am the more grateful because I know that it is not given to me alone, but to the cause I represent, which clearly proves to me their good-will, and that sincere feeling is at the bottom of it. And here I may remark that in every short address I have made to the people, in every crowd through which I have passed of late, some allusion has been made to the present distracted condition of the country. It is natural to expect that I should say something on this subject; but to touch upon it at all would involve an elaborate discussion of a great many questions and circumstances, requiring more time than I can at present command, and would, perhaps, unnecessarily commit me upon matters which have not yet fully developed themselves. The condition of the country is an extraordinary one, and fills the mind of every patriot with anxiety. It is my intention to give this subject all the consideration I possibly can before specially deciding in regard to it, so that when I do speak it may be as nearly right as possible. When I do speak I hope I may say nothing in opposition to the spirit of the Constitution, contrary to the integrity of the Union, or which will prove inimical to the liberties of the people, or to the peace of the whole country. And, furthermore, when the time arrives for me to speak on this great subject, I hope I may say nothing to disappoint the people generally throughout the country, especially if the expectation has been based upon anything which I may have heretofore said. Notwithstanding the troubles across the river [the speaker pointing southwardly across the Monongahela, and smiling], there is no crisis but an artificial one. What is there now to warrant the condition of affairs presented by our friends over the river? Take even their own view of the questions involved, and there is nothing to justify the course they are pursuing. I repeat, then, there is no crisis, excepting such a one as may be gotten up at any time by turbulent men aided by designing politicians. My advice to them, under such circumstances, is to keep cool. If the great American people only keep their temper on both sides of the line, the troubles will come to an end, and the question which now distracts the country will be settled, just as surely as all other difficulties of a like character which have originated in this government have been adjusted. Let the people on both sides keep their self-possession, and just as other clouds have cleared away in due time, so will this great nation continue to prosper as heretofore. But, fellow-citizens, I have spoken longer on this subject than I intended at the outset.

It is often said that the tariff is the specialty of Pennsylvania. Assuming that direct taxation is not to be adopted, the tariff question must be as durable as the government itself. It is a question of national housekeeping. It is to the government what replenishing the meal-tub is to the family. Ever-varying circumstances will require frequent modifications as to the amount needed and the sources of supply. So far there is little difference of opinion among the people. It is as to whether, and how far, duties on imports shall be adjusted to favor home production in the home market, that controversy begins. One party insists that such adjustment oppresses one class for the advantage of another; while the other party argues that, with all its incidents, in the long run all classes are benefited. In the Chicago platform there is a plank upon this subject which should be a general law to the incoming administration. We should do neither more nor less than we gave the people reason to believe we would when they gave us their votes. Permit me, fellow-citizens, to read the tariff plank of the Chicago platform, or rather have it read in your hearing by one who has younger eyes.

Mr. Lincoln's private secretary then read Section 12 of the Chicago platform, as follows:

That while providing revenue for the support of the General Government by duties upon imports, sound policy requires such an adjustment of these imposts as will encourage the development of the industrial interest of the whole country; and we commend that policy of national exchanges which secures to working-men liberal wages, to agriculture remunerating prices, to mechanics and manufacturers adequate reward for their skill, labor, and enterprise, and to the nation commercial prosperity and independence.

Mr. Lincoln resumed: As with all general propositions, doubtless there will be shades of difference in construing this. I have by no means a thoroughly matured judgment upon this subject, especially as to details; some general ideas are about all. I have long thought it would be to our advantage to produce any necessary article at home which can be made of as good quality and with as little labor at home as abroad, at least by the difference of the carrying from abroad. In such case the carrying is demonstrably a dead loss of labor. For instance, labor being the true standard of value, is it not plain that if equal labor get a bar of railroad iron out of a mine in England, and another out of a mine in Pennsylvania, each can be laid down in a track at home cheaper than they could exchange countries, at least by the carriage? If there be a present cause why one can be both made and carried cheaper in money price than the other can be made without carrying, that cause is an unnatural and injurious one, and ought gradually, if not rapidly, to be removed. The condition of the treasury at this time would seem to render an early revision of the tariff indispensable. The Morrill [tariff] bill, now pending before Congress, may or may not become a law. I am not posted as to its particular provisions, but if they are generally satisfactory, and the bill shall now pass, there will be an end for the present. If, however, it shall not pass, I suppose the whole subject will be one of the most pressing and important for the next Congress. By the Constitution, the executive may recommend measures which he may think proper, and he may veto those he thinks improper, and it is supposed that he may add to these certain indirect influences to affect the action of Congress. My political education strongly inclines me against a very free use of any of these means by the executive to control the legislation of the country. As a rule, I think it better that Congress should originate as well as perfect its measures without external bias. I therefore would rather recommend to every gentlemen who knows he is to be a member of the next Congress to take an enlarged view, and post himself thoroughly, so as to contribute his part to such an adjustment of the tariff as shall produce a sufficient revenue, and in its other bearings, so far as possible, be just and equal to all sections of the country and classes of the people.

SOURCE: John G. Nicolay & John Hay, Editors, Abraham Lincoln: Complete Works, Volume 1, p. 677-9

Speech of Mayor George Wilson Welcoming Abraham Lincoln to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, February 15, 1861

Honored Sir, it affords me sincere pleasure to extend to you on behalf of my fellow citizens the kind greeting and hospitality of the citizens of Pittsburgh.

It rarely occurs that an opportunity is afforded the people for an exhibition of their devotion to the Union by a tribute of respect to the person of their chief magistrate.

It is not singular, therefore, that the merchant, the mechanic and the laborer, laying aside their usual avocations, have come out in their strength to pay homage to the man whom the people, in their wisdom have called to preside over the destinies of the nation.

We greet you, sir, on this occasion, not only as the Chief Magistrate of the nation, but as the harbinger of peace to our distracted country.

The people of Allegheny county, relying on your wisdom and patriotism, trust that by your prudence and firmness the dangers which threaten the permanency of our Government may be speedily removed, and the glorious confederacy established by our fathers may find in you an able and patriotic defender.

SOURCE: “The Reception of the New President,” The Pittsburg Daily Post, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Saturday, February 16, 1861, p. 1

Speech of Lieutenant Governor Robert C. Kirk, Welcoming Abraham Lincoln to a Joint Session of the Ohio Legislature, February 13, 1861

On this day, and probably this very hour, the Congress of the United States will declare the verdict of the people, making you their President. It is my pleasurable duty, in behalf of the people of Ohio, speaking through this General Assembly, to welcome you to their capital.

Never, in the history of this government, has such fearful responsibility rested upon the chief executive of the nation, as will now devolve upon you. Never, since the memorable time our patriotic fathers gave existence to the American republic, have the people looked with such intensity of feeling to the inauguration and future policy of a President, as they do to yours.

I need not assure you that the people of Ohio have full confidence in your ability and patriotism, and will respond to you in their loyalty to the Union and the Constitution. It would seem, sir, that the great problem of self-government is to be solved under your administration; all nations are deeply interested in its solution, and they wait with breathless anxiety to know whether this form of government, which has been the admiration of the world, is to be a failure or not.

It is the earnest and united prayer of our people, that the same kind Providence, which protected us in our colonial struggles, and has attended us thus far in our prosperity and greatness, will so imbue your mind with wisdom that you may dispel the dark clouds that hang over our political horizon, and thereby secure the return of harmony and fraternal feeling to our now distracted and unhappy country. God grant their prayer may be fully realized!

Again, I bid you a cordial welcome to our capital.

SOURCE: Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Ohio: For the Second Session of the Fifty-fourth General Assembly, Commencing on Monday, January 7, 1861, Volume 57, p. 173

Lucius Q. C . Lamar* to Congressman Howell Cobb, February 15, 1848

Covington, Ga., Feb. 15th, 1848.

Dear Sir: As I have no personal acquaintance with our immediate representative, Hon. Mr. Haralson, I hope you will excuse the liberty I have taken in addressing you this letter. I wish you to have sent to me some paper devoted exclusively to the reporting of the proceedings of Congress. I do not know whether the amount enclosed is sufficient or not. If it be too small, please have the paper sent on at once anyhow, and I will immediately make up the deficit — if too large I would be glad if you would purchase for me last year's Congressional Globe and Appendix. I would be gratified also to have the speeches of McLane of Maryland, Foote, Rhett and Bedinger, that is if they can be conveniently obtained. The truth is that the reports of the speeches in the Union are so provokingly meagre and defective that I never look at them. Your speech for instance (which I think sincerely is the best on your side of the session), as found in the Intelligencer, is most unmercifully mutilated in the Union. I should not trouble [you] with this very small matter had I any other means of ascertaining the name of the paper I wish — one that gives us your speeches accurately and in extenso.

_______________

* Justice Lamar was at this time a young lawyer at Covington, Ga. His career In public life was as Congressman and Senator from Mississippi, colonel In the Confederate army. Secretary of the. Interior under President Cleveland, and Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 96-7

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: October 15, 1863

To-day, at 12 M., I saw a common leather-wing bat flying over the War Department. What this portends I do not pretend to say, perhaps nothing. It may have been dislodged by the workmen building chimneys to the offices of the department.

The order of the government conscribing all foreign residents who have acquired homes in this country, and the expulsion of the British consuls, will immediately be followed by another exodus of that class of residents. Already passports are daily applied for, and invariably granted by Mr. Assistant Secretary Campbell. The enemy, of course, will reap great benefit from the information conveyed by these people, and the innumerable brood of blockade-runners.

Gen. Lee has sent down between 600 and 700 prisoners captured in recent cavalry engagements. He took their horses and equipments also. And there is an account of an engagement in the West, near Memphis, in which the Confederate troops inflicted injury on the enemy, besides destroying the railroad in several places.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 71

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: October 16, 1863

No battle had occurred in Northern Virginia up to 10 o'clock yesterday morning, although there is a constant stream of prisoners being sent to this city daily, taken by our cavalry. At last accounts Meade's army was retreating toward Washington City, hotly pursued by Lee. They were near Manassas, the first battle-field of the war.

There is nothing new from the West, except some skirmishing of cavalry in Central and Western Tennessee, wherein our men have had the advantage, though sometimes falling back before superior numbers.

At Charleston a brisk cannonading is kept up between the batteries; and it is said more hostile transports are arriving, which may indicate active operations on land. Our 700-pounder Blakely No. 2 is there.

Judge Campbell is giving passports rapidly, sometimes binding the Jews not to engage in private operations, but to confine themselves, while in the United States, to the purchase of supplies for the Confederate States service! Some, however, are willing to go on these terms to avoid conscription, but will realize profit by selling information to the enemy.

Judge Hastings, of California, proposes to return thither and publish a pamphlet describing newly discovered gold mines, and organizing companies to work them, which shall be secessionists; and when organized, he will fall upon and destroy the United States troops, march into Arizona, and from thence pour reinforcements into Texas. The Secretary, in the absence of the President, sends a copy of this scheme to Lieut.-Gen. E. K. Smith, trans-Mississippi Department, and gives some encouragement to the judge; abstaining, however, for the present, from devoting any money to the project.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 72

Diary of 1st Sergeant John L. Ransom: December 7, 1864

Another day of smiling weather. Still call our mess the “Astor House Mess” It is composed of only three — the Bucks and myself. I am the only one of the original mess here, and it is still the most prosperous and best fed of any. We are all the time at work at something. Have a good piece of soap, and have washed our clothing throughout, and are clean and neat for prisoners of war. Eli S. Buck is a large fellow, and a farmer when at home. Both are young, and from the same neighborhood. As I have said before, are cousins, and think a great deal of one another, which is good to see. Relatives rarely get along together in prison as well as those who are not related. There were brothers in Andersonville who would not mess together. Seems funny, but such is the case. Should like to see myself throwing over a brother for any one else. Guards denounce Jeff Davis as the author of their misfortunes. We also denounce him as the author of ours, so we are agreed on one point. Going to move. The “mess” will escape en masse at the first move, just for the sake of roaming the woods. With the Bucks in company with me, shall have a good time, and we can undoubtedly soon reach our troops in as much as they are raiding through the South. Dave Buck is the acknowledged leader of us. He prays; think of that.

SOURCE: John L. Ransom, Andersonville Diary, p. 133