8 Oc a detail of 10
men from each Co was made for fatigue duty & I was put in command &
went & commenced to clear up & set our tents; 10 Oc an order came for
us to prepare rations & get ready to march at 8½ night we ware called in
line and marched to the landing in Ft Pickering 9½ Oc we went on board the
packets Anglo Saxon, Ida May & Lebanon for Helena Arkansas.
SOURCE: Edgar R.
Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2,
October 1925, p. 101
At 8½ Oc we started
from our moorings at the boat landing in ft Pickering Memphis Tenn we left
Seargent R Murdock & 6 privates from our Co Gin hospital & our 1st Lieut
Wm M McCreary was taken from the hospital last evening & put in a packet
for St Louis where he intends going into hospital he has been quite poorly
since the 1st of Dec not one day able for duty & from our election of Co
officers on the 14th of Aug he was not one hour with us untill the 1st of Oct
& was quite unwell by times between the 1st of Oct & the 1st of Dec. He
has now resigned & there will be another Lieut to appoint at ¼ to 3 Oc afternoon we landed at Hellena
Arkansas it is a low muddy place with numerous ponds of filthy green looking
watter, it is small villedge built of frame
SOURCE: Edgar R.
Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2,
October 1925, pp. 101-2
ASHLAND, July 4, 1848.
DEAR SIR,—I comply
so far with the request contained in your note of the 23d ultimo, as to
acknowledge its receipt, and to say that, submitting to the decision of the
Philadelphia Convention, so far as I was personally affected by it, I can not
give my countenance or encouragement to the use of my name in connection with
the Presidency. Abstaining from the expression of any opinion in regard to the
nomination which was actually made, I will only observe that Ohio, Indiana, and
Massachusetts, and other Northern States, had it in their power to prevent it,
if they had chosen to unite upon one whose attachment to the Whig cause was
never doubted; but they did not think proper to do so. Ought they then to
complain of what was done, upon the ground that General Taylor is not pledged
to the support of Whig measures and principles?
I tender my thanks
to you for the friendly sentiments toward me which you were kind enough to
express, and I am, etc.
ASHLAND, July 19, 1848.
If I have not before
written to you, my dear Miss Susan, I pray you to believe that my silence has
not proceeded from any want of regard to you or from any insensibility to the
kindness which you have displayed toward me, in your obliging letter of the 4th
March last, and in presenting me with the valuable writings of Archbishop
Leighton.
With perfect truth
and candor I say that I have rarely ever made a visit to any individual in my
life that afforded me higher satisfaction than that which I derived from seeing
you. Your physical misfortunes, your resignation to the will of our Maker, your
gentle and intelligent countenance, and your interesting conversation, all
combined to give to the short interview I had with you a thrilling interest. I
have oftentimes thought of it, and have frequently described the touching scene
to my friends.
I have looked enough
into the volume which you kindly sent me to be convinced that it merits your
high commendation of it; and I intend to give the whole of it an attentive
perusal.
I am very thankful,
dear Miss Susan, for the friendly manner in which you allude to the domestic
afflictions with which it has pleased Providence to visit me.
I have had a large share of them. Since my return home another has been added
to the former number in the death of a most promising grandson, at New Orleans,
under circumstances which greatly aggravated our grief. I am happy, however, to
tell you, on the other hand, that the sweet little granddaughter, whose case of
spinal affection I mentioned to you, is much better, runs about with the free
use of her limbs, and we hope will have her strength and health fully
re-established. In behalf of her I thank you for the little book which you had
the goodness to send her. She is yet too young to read it herself, but I trust
that she will be spared to be able hereafter to peruse it. In the mean
time her excellent mother will make her familiar with its contents.
Relieved as I am now
from the cares, the troubles and the responsibilities of public life, I hope to
profit by retirement in making those preparations for another and better world
which are enjoined upon us by our highest and eternal interests. In these, your
example of perfect submission and complete obedience will be constantly
remembered by me, with great benefit and advantage. Instead of condoling with me,
as some of my friends have, on account of my failure to obtain the nomination
at the. late Philadelphia Convention, their congratulations on the event would
have been more seasonable and appropriate.
I request you to
present my respectful regards to your brothers and their families; and accept
for yourself my prayers that He who has enabled you so calmly and cheerfully to
bear up under the heavy privations which you suffer, may continue His watchful
care over you to the end, and that we may both hereafter meet in the regions of
eternal bliss.
SOURCE: Calvin
Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp.
569-70
ELIZABETHTOWN, N. J., July 19, 1848.
MY DEAR MR. CLAY,—I
have been most unfortunate in respect to your very kind note to me of May 30,
addressed to this place. It followed me to Frederick, Md., then to Washington,
a second time to Frederick, thence to Leonardstown (our friend John Lee's
post-office), and after lying there long after I had left his hospitable
mansion, it has finally just overtaken me here, viâ Washington.
It is now sixty days
since I landed on the Jersey shore, with a Mexican disease upon me, and
although obliged to travel and to engage in the most vexatious and disgusting
work, I have not had the strength to walk three hundred yards at once in the
whole time. I am still very feeble, and go to-morrow to the sea shore to gain
vigor to meet the same court (nearly) in my own case, at the beginning of the
next month.
I left Mexico in the
comfortable belief that the choice of a Whig candidate for the Presidency had
been narrowed down to two names, yours and that of General Taylor, and that you
would be the nominee. The day after I landed a distinguished public man from a
wing of the Capitol, a friend of yours, passing by got out of the train to see me. I
stated my impressions and wishes to him, and was astonished to hear him say
that your friends in Congress, with four exceptions—Berrien and Botts, but no
Kentuckians, were two of them—had given you up on some calculation of a want of
availability! I promptly said, if I could be flattered into the belief that my
name on the same ticket (below yours) would add the vote of a single State, I
might be considered as at the service of the party, and authorized him to say
so on his return to Washington, notwithstanding my reluctance to change my army
commission, etc. In a day or two I went to Washington, visited Frederick and
returned, but I was confined to a sick bed, and, although I saw many political
men, I was not in a condition to converse or to exercise the slightest
influence. I believe the impression was quite general that I was not likely to recover.
At the end of a week, however, I got back, with difficulty, to Frederick, and
there the nomination of General Taylor reached me.
If he shall frankly
accept the nomination as a Whig, with a pledge to administer the Government on
the principles of the party, I shall fervently pray for his success. If not, I
shall at least be indifferent.
SOURCE: Calvin
Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 570-1
ASHLAND, August 5, 1848.
MY DEAR SIR,—I
received, at the Estell Springs (from which I returned yesterday), your favor
transmitting a sketch of Mr. ———’s speech at Versailles, for which I thank you.
How derogatory is it
for politicians to attempt to ridicule and degrade themselves in the presence
of General Taylor! And how inconsistent is it to denounce party in the same
breath in which the Whig party is called on to support the General as a Whig,
that is, a party man! It is mortifying to behold that once great party
descending from its lofty position of principle, known, avowed and proclaimed
principle, and lending itself to the creation of a mere personal party, with a
virtual abandonment of its old principles.
I have a letter from
General Scott in which he states that he authorized, on his landing from
Mexico, a distinguished gentleman from Washington, to say that he was willing
to run as a candidate for the Vice Presidency on the ticket with me.
SOURCE: Calvin
Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 571-2
ASHLAND, August 24, 1848.
MY DEAR SIR,—I duly
received, and perused with lively interest and gratitude, your friendly letter
of the 27th ultimo.
The Whig party
presents an anomalous condition. Without any candidate who recognizes his
obligation to conform to their principles, the members of it are called upon as
a party to support the no-party candidate; and I have been urgently and
repeatedly appealed to, to indorse as a Whig General Taylor, who, while he
adopts the name in a modified form, repudiates the principles of the party! I
need not say, that I have done, and shall do, no such thing. Self-respect,
consistency with deliberate opinions long ago formed, and my sense of public
duty, will restrain me from taking any prominent or active part in the canvass.
Whatever I may do, I will not expose myself to any reproaches from those if
there be any such—who might be misled by my opinion. I have submitted quietly
to the decision of the Convention, and beyond that I feel under no obligations.
I consider my public
career as forever terminated, and I am most anxious to preserve untarnished
that character, around which so many warm-hearted friends have done me the honor
to rally. I should, I think, justly incur their censure if, after all that I
have thought and said (confirmed as my convictions are by observation) against
the elevation of mere military men to the Presidency, could I come out in the
active support of the most exclusively military candidate ever presented to the
American people; one, too, who has forced himself upon the Convention, or been
forced upon it. One who declared that he would stand as an independent
candidate against me, or any other Whig that might be nominated—a declaration
made under his own hand, and which remains uncontradicted by any thing under
his own hand, which the public has been permitted to see.
I do not mean to
intimate what may be my final vote, given quietly at the polls, if I vote at
all; that will depend upon a view of all existing circumstances at the time;
but neither now nor then do I desire to influence any body else.
There is nothing in the
contest to arouse my patriotism, or to animate my zeal. I regard the attempt to
elect General Taylor as one to create a mere personal party. How such a party
may work, I can not foresee; possibly better than that of either of his
competitors; but this possibility is not sufficient to excite any warmth or
enthusiasm with me. General Taylor has, I think, exhibited much instability and
vascillation. He will inevitably fall into the hands of others, who will
control his Administration. I know not who they will be, but judging from my
experience of poor, weak human nature, they will be most likely those who will
have favored and flattered the most.
Standing proud and
erect in the consciousness of having faithfully fulfilled all my public duties,
and supported and cheered by numberless intelligent and warm-hearted friends in
all parts of the country, I acquiesce in the retirement in which I expect to
pass the remnant of my life. Some of those friends may censure me for the
inaction which I have prescribed to myself during the present canvass; but if
they do, I appeal to their "sober second thoughts," or to the
impartial tribunal of posterity. I am, etc.
A weak and disagreeable
state of body since last date has waived my practice of noting; but everything
has been as now—"hell upon earth." We have a few dottings of this
kind: the Rebel quartermaster is from Baltimore, and to counteract some
suspicions of his speculating in rations, makes lots of promises when he comes
in of late. One of our fellows got thick with him and told him where to find a
tunnel, for a plug of tobacco. Soon after he came with a squad of negroes armed
with feeling rods and spades, found and filled it. It had baffled their
scrutiny for three days. The man who revealed the secret betrayed himself and
that evening was hunted out, given a clean shave of his head and on his
forehead was tattooed the word. "Traitor." Next day rations were
ordered withheld till those who did the job reported at the gate. I don't know
that anyone reported but rations came the day after leaving us a vacuum of one
day.
Petitions have been
circulating praying our government for relief. I did not sign. They are
sanctioned by Rebel authority, intended to produce political effect and to
leave the impression in the North that the prisoners condemn government policy
in reference to exchange, therefore to serve a purpose of its enemies. It
abounds in dictation and censure, suppressing facts.
Reports of movements
in north Virginia are true. Sherman is up to Atlanta; Johnston relieved by
Hood. They think Johnston, fights on the principle that "He who fights and
runs away will live to fight another day." Federal cavalry at Montgomery
and Taladega, Ala., and at Macon, Ga., only 60 miles away, which causes great
excitement here. The Rebels are fortifying. Droves of negroes are brought here
from plantations and put to work. Troops and citizens, all sexes and sizes,
flock in and quarters are being built, making a ville of the place. We look
over to it from high ground and reflect that it is one of the new born of
Secessia. A man near the stream cut his own throat today. Several hundred Rebel
soldiers are shipped by rail for Macon. Three men brought in whom the Rebels
suspect were scouts. They were put in the stocks several hours, but gave no
information. James English of our company, of New York City, died July 17th.
SOURCE: John Worrell
Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville
and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, p. 92
Weather severely hot
as it has been learned that a break by the prisoners is planned, and warns them
for three weeks. A supply of sumach buds must have arrived and are given out
freely to be steeped and drank for scurvy. A sergeant belonging to a work squad
outside was shot by a guard, wounding him in the arm and hip and wounding
another man, He took hold of the guard's gun. Some on parole get too intimate
with Rebels; value principles less than extra rations. That such men have to be
shot to remind them that they are dealing with traitors does not so much
matter. While washing my shirt at the creek this afternoon the centry [sic] fired, the shot whizzing by my head
as I stooped, striking in the bank and spattering mud in the faces of four of
us. Lots of shooting has been done by guards for over a week and several men
have been killed and wounded. Limbs are amputated at the hospital for slight
injuries, The arm of one of our men hit by a sentry a few days ago was promptly
sawed off. Another tunnel found; dogs are seeking a trail. New forts are
plainly to be seen. Negroes work all night. Reported fighting at Atlanta and
that some of our forces are expected at Macon.
SOURCE: John Worrell
Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville
and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, pp. 92-3
Before day the dog
horn and the yelping of hounds was heard. Men on parole about the depot had
attempted to escape. Two trains of wounded from Hood's army passed here. Rebels
report a victory, then admit a loss. Frederick, of my Company, died this afternoon.
He has been ailing but we did not think him dangerously ill. He was carried out
at 5 o'clock and is the 51st man who has died since 7 a. m. in prison.
SOURCE: John Worrell
Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville
and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, p. 93
Attended meeting
this morning near the big pine trees in the southeast part of the pen,
preaching by Sergeant B. N. Waddle, of 126th Ohio. Some of those active in
carrying on the meetings are Rev. T. J. Sheppard, B. N. Waddle, M. H. Miller,
22nd Mich. Cavalry, and Robert H. Kellogg, of 16th Connecticut Regt., Thomas A.
Cord, U. S. Infantry, also Boston Corbett. Some who show extraordinary talent
as singers, are J. O. Turner, David Atherton, 65th N. Y., John W. Kerr, L. H.
Cummings, Massachusetts; G. W. Pomeroy and others. There is often a chorus of
nearly a hundred voices, some evenings, of fine singers.
Called on W. H.
Harriman in the afternoon. He is so affected with scurvy that he cannot stand.
The doctor tells him that they have no medicine that will cure; he is expecting
to go to the hospital tomorrow; bade us good-bye, grasping our hands, in tears.
He said: "Ever hoping for the best I shall not forget you and Thompson. We
shall not meet again; I hope I shall have better treatment, at least better
fare. If I am exchanged I will write your people, you do the same." (I
heard nothing definite from Harriman until July, 1865, when his sister, Anna E.
Harriman, wrote me from Zanesville, Ohio, that he died in October, 1864).
SOURCE: John Worrell
Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville
and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, p. 93
Prostrated with
severe pains, chills and fever which lasted most of the night. Getting a small
piece of beef and rice in lieu of meal we have a fine dish. Griffith has sold a
three quart tin pail, given us in Virginia by Wesley Norwood, for $5 U. S.
currency.
SOURCE: John Worrell
Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville
and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, pp. 94
News from Atlanta
conflicting; papers, so far as we know, admit the repulse of Hood, then claim a
victory. Later statements rather choke victorious editors. Hood feels compelled
to fight and not leave the town. Sherman intends to give him the whipping
Johnston has all summer been running away from, if he makes the stand.
My complaints are
unabated; are attended with weakening pains which at times prostrate me.
Rations irregular; often missing a day or two.
SOURCE: John Worrell Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, p. 94
Had Job greater
patience? Here are men of true mettle or we might see them knocking at the gate
to swear fidelity to foes. To lie down is to submit to be eaten by lice and rot.
When strength fails, such is the lot of all. "All that a man hath will he
give for his life." But what have we to give? A great deal of money will
get a little flour from Rebels, such is their love of money. But their lack of
love for humanity feeds us husks and loathsome things. We are in prison and
they visit us with torments and reproaches; we are athirst and they give us to
drink of water tainted with filth and excrement; sick and afflicted and they
torture us; weak and weary and they give us to rest on the sand filthy and full
of breeding vermin; shelterless and they give us no roof; lacking raiment and
they take much that we have.
A man shot dead, the
ball passing directly through his head back of the ears, while kneeling near
the dead line innocently looking at something. He had just come in and was
unwarned.
I bought an egg for
20 cents, a small biscuit for 25 cents for supper with proceeds from the tin kettle sold.
SOURCE: John Worrell
Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville
and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, p. 94
Breakfasted on half
of a small biscuit and an onion. Prisoners arrive; a crowd gathered when a
cannon was fired over the camp.
SOURCE: John Worrell
Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville
and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, p. 94
Several shots fired
during the night, one from a cannon, the shot screaming overhead. Yesterday and
today's arrival of prisoners is about 1,200. White flags are put in the center
of the prison to designate ground on which crowds must not assemble. If they do
they will be fired upon. Accordingly men are constantly at the guns.
SOURCE: John Worrell
Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville
and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, pp. 94
Fort Hill 24th Oct 1847
You will have seen
by the papers, that the City of Mexico is in possession of our army, and that
the prospect of conquering peace is as remote as ever, as I suggested it might
be in that case. Thus far, not an anticipation of the administration has been
realized; and yet, if we may judge from indications, they are resolved to go thoughtlessly
forward, when it is clear, whether defeated or successful, the result will be
unfortunate to the country. If we should succeed in conquering the whole what
shall we do with it, or what can [we] do with it without ruin to our
institutions? If we fail where shall we be?
SOURCE: J. Franklin
Jameson, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association
for the Year 1899, Volume II, Calhoun’s Correspondence: Fourth Annual Report of
the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, p.
737
Fort Hill, 29th Oct 1847.
DEAR SIR, I have
read your letter with attention, and will answer it in the same sperit of
candour and freedom, with which it is written.
We do not disagree,
as to the cause of the war, nor as to its certain disasterous consequences in
the end, let it terminate as it will. We also agree in the opinion, that the
war ought to terminate, and that my position requires me to use my best efforts
to bring it to an end. But the great practical question is; How can that be
done?
In deciding that
question, it must not be overlooked, that both parties by large majorities
stand committed by their recorded votes, not only to the war, but that the war
is a war of agression on the part of the Republick of Mexico, agression by
invation and spilling American blood on American soil, and thus committed also
to the Rio Grande being the Western boundary of the state of Texas. It is true,
that very few of either party believed, that there was any just cause for war,
or that the Rio Grande was the Western boundary of Texas, or that the Republick
of Mexico had made war on us by the invasion of our territory, or any other
way; but it is equally true, that by an act of unexampled weakness, to use the
mildest terms, both stand by admission on record to the very opposite of their
belief. And what is worse, they have by this act of unpar[all]elled weakness,
committed large portions of both parties out of Congress to the war, as just
and unavoidable on our part.
* Printed in the
American Historical Review, I, 314, 315, from which it is here copied.
It will be
remembered that General Thompson had been minister to Mexico,
1 John M. Berrien, Senator from Georgia,
1825-1829, 1841-1852.
SOURCE: J. Franklin
Jameson, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association
for the Year 1899, Volume II, Calhoun’s Correspondence: Fourth Annual Report of
the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Correspondence of John C. Calhoun,
pp. 737-9
Fort Hill 9th Nov 1847
DEAR SIR, I received
by the last mail your note, with the Message from Mr Cameron; and will thank
you to say to him, that I am obliged to him for his proposed arrangement, but
that I had previously made another arrangement for the session.
* Original lent by
Mr. R. P. Maynard.
SOURCE: J. Franklin
Jameson, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association
for the Year 1899, Volume II, Calhoun’s Correspondence: Fourth Annual Report of
the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Correspondence of John C. Calhoun,
pp. 739-40
Fort Hill 13th Novr 1847
* Original lent by Mr. R. P. Maynard.
SOURCE: J. Franklin
Jameson, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association
for the Year 1899, Volume II, Calhoun’s Correspondence: Fourth Annual Report of
the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, p.
740
