Abraham Lincoln's Address to a Union Meeting at Washington, August 6, 1862

August 6, 1862

FELLOW-CITIZENS: I believe there is no precedent for my appearing before you on this occasion, [applause] but it is also true that there is no precedent for your being here yourselves, [applause and laughter;] and I offer, in justification of myself and of you, that, upon examination, I have found nothing in the Constitution against. [Renewed applause.] I, however, have an impression that there are younger gentlemen who will entertain you better, [voices – “No, no; none can do better than yourself. Go on!”] and better address your understanding, than I will or could, and therefore, I propose but to detain you a moment longer. [Cries – “Go on! Tar and feather the rebels!'']

I am very little inclined on any occasion to say anything unless I hope to produce some good by it. [A voice – “You do that; go on.] The only thing I think of just now not likely to be better said by some one else, is a matter in which we have heard some other persons blamed for what I did myself. [Voices – “What is it?] There has been a very wide-spread attempt to have a quarrel between Gen. McClellan and the Secretary of War. Now, I occupy a position that enables me to observe, at least, these two gentlemen are not nearly so deep in the quarrel as some pretending to be their friends. [Cries of “Good.”] Gen. McClellan's attitude is such that, in the very selfishness of his nature, he cannot but wish to be successful, and I hope he will – and the Secretary of War is in precisely the same situation. If the military commanders in the field cannot be successful, not only the Secretary of War, but myself for the time being the master of them both, cannot be but failures. [Laughter and applause.] I know Gen. McClellan wishes to be successful, and I know he does not wish it any more than the Secretary of War for him, and both of them together no more than I wish it. [Applause and cries of “Good.”] Sometimes we have a dispute about how many men Gen. McClellan has had, and those who would disparage him say that he has had a very large number, and those who would disparage the Secretary of War insist that Gen. McClellan has had a very small number. The basis for this is, there is always a wide difference, and on this occasion, perhaps, a wider one between the grand total on McClellan's rolls and the men actually fit for duty; and those who would disparage him talk of the grand total on paper, and those who would disparage the Secretary of War talk of those at present fit for duty. Gen. McClellan has sometimes asked for things that the Secretary of War did not give him. Gen. McClellan is not to blame for asking what he wanted and needed, and the Secretary of War is not to blame for not giving when he had none to give. [Applause, laughter, and cries of “Good, good.”] And I say here, as far as I know, the Secretary of War has withheld no one thing at any time in my power to give him. [Wild applause, and a voice – “Give him enough now!”] I have no accusation against him. I believe he is a brave and able man, [applause,] and I stand here, as justice requires me to do, to take upon myself what has been charged on the Secretary of War, as withholding from him.

I have talked longer than I expected to do, [cries of “No, no – go on,”] and now I avail myself of my privilege of saying no more.

SOURCES: The New York Times, Thursday, August 7, 1862, p. 1; Roy P. Basler, editor, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 5, p. 358-9. 

Major-General Henry W. Halleck to Major-General George B. McClellan, August 5, 1862 – 12 m.

WASHINGTON, August 5, 1862 – 12 m.

You cannot regret the order of the withdrawal more than I did the necessity of giving it. It will not be rescinded, and you will be expected to execute it with all possible promptness. It is believed that it can be done now without serious danger. This may not be so, if there should be any delay. I will write you my views more fully by mail.

H. W. HALLECK,

Major-General, Commanding U. S. Army.

Maj. Gen. GEORGE B. McCLELLAN.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 11, Part 1 (Serial No. 12), p. 82

Major-General Henry W. Halleck to Major-General George B. McClellan, July 31, 1862 – 10 a.m.

WASHINGTON, July 31, 1862 – 10 a.m.

General Pope again telegraphs that the enemy is reported to be evacuating Richmond and falling back on Danville and Lynchburg.

H. W. HALLECK,

Major-General.

Maj. Gen. GEORGE B. McCLELLAN.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 11, Part 1 (Serial No. 12), p. 77

Diary of Gideon Welles, Wednesday, September 3, 1862

Washington is full of exciting, vague, and absurd rumors. There is some cause for it. Our great army comes retreating to the banks of the Potomac, driven back to the intrenchments by Rebels.

The army has no head. Halleck is here in the Department, a military director, not a general, a man of some scholastic attainments, but without soldierly capacity. McClellan is an intelligent engineer and officer, but not a commander to head a great army in the field. To attack or advance with energy and power is not in him; to fight is not his forte. I sometimes fear his heart is not earnest in the cause, yet I do not entertain the thought that he is unfaithful. The study of military operations interests and amuses him. It flatters him to have on his staff French princes and men of wealth and position; he likes show, parade, and power. Wishes to outgeneral the Rebels, but not to kill and destroy them. In a conversation which I had with him in May last at Cumberland on the Pamunkey, he said he desired of all things to capture Charleston; he would demolish and annihilate the city. He detested, he said, both South Carolina and Massachusetts, and should rejoice to see both States extinguished. Both were and always had been ultra and mischievous, and he could not tell which he hated most. These were the remarks of the General-in-Chief at the head of our armies then in the field, and when as large a proportion of his troops were from Massachusetts as from any State in the Union, while as large a proportion of those opposed, who were fighting the Union, were from South Carolina as from any State. He was leading the men of Massachusetts against the men of South Carolina, yet he, the General, detests them alike.

I cannot relieve my mind from the belief that to him, in a great degree, and to his example, influence, and conduct are to be attributed some portion of our late reverses, more than to any other person on either side. His reluctance to move or have others move, his inactivity, his detention of Franklin, his omission to send forward supplies unless Pope would send a cavalry escort from the battle-field, and the tone of his conversation and dispatches, all show a moody state of feeling. The slight upon him and the generals associated with him, in the selection of Pope, was injudicious, impolitic, wrong perhaps, but is no justification for their withholding one tithe of strength in a great emergency, where the lives of their countrymen and the welfare of the country were in danger. The soldiers whom McClellan has commanded are doubtless attached to him. They have been trained to it, and he has kindly cared for them while under him. With partiality for him thay have imbibed his prejudices, and some of the officers have, I fear, a spirit more factious and personal than patriotic. I have thought they might have reason to complain, at the proper time and place, but not on the field of battle, that a young officer of no high reputation should be brought from a Western Department and placed over them. Stanton, in his hate of McC., has aggrieved other officers.

The introduction of Pope here, followed by Halleck, is an intrigue of Stanton's and Chase's to get rid of McClellan. A part of this intrigue has been the withdrawal of McClellan and the Army of the Potomac from before Richmond and turning it into the Army of Washington under Pope.

Chase, who made himself as busy in the management of the army as the Treasury, said to the President one day in my presence, when we were looking over the maps on the table in the War Department, that the whole movement upon Richmond by the York River was wrong, that we should accomplish nothing until the army was recalled and Washington was made the base of operations for an overland march. McClellan had all the troops with him, and the Capital was exposed to any sudden blow from the Rebels. "What would you do?" said the President. "Order McClellan to return and start right," replied Chase, putting his finger on the map, and pointing the course to be taken across the country. Pope, who was present, said, "If Halleck were here, you would have, Mr. President, a competent adviser who would put this matter right."

The President, without consulting any one, went about this time on a hasty visit to West Point, where he had a brief interview with General Scott, and immediately returned. A few days thereafter General Halleck was detached from the Western Department and ordered to Washington, where he was placed in position as General-in-Chief, and McClellan and the Army of the Potomac, on Halleck's recommendation, first proposed by Chase, were recalled from in the vicinity of Richmond.

The defeat of Pope and placing McC. in command of the retreating and disorganized forces after the second disaster at Bull Run interrupted the intrigue which had been planned for the dismissal of McClellan, and was not only a triumph for him but a severe mortification and disappointment for both Stanton and Chase.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 106-9

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Elizabeth Budd Smith, June 29, 1862

HEADQUARTERS 54TH REGT. O. V. INF.,

CAMP NEAR MOSCOW, TENN., Sunday, June 29,1862.

My last letter to you was dated from Lagrange yesterday week, and written so hurriedly, for I was just on the eve of march, that I think it must have been unintelligible. We are so hurried from point to point, the mails so uncertain, and facilities and opportunity for writing so scant, that it really becomes a task, or rather I should say enterprise hard to succeed in, the getting of a letter from camp to one's friends. I wrote, if I recollect, that we had marched from Chewalla to Lagrange, that from thence my brigade had made a hurried descent upon Holly Springs, one of the principal cities of Mississippi, where we expected to meet the enemy in considerable force; that they fled at our approach; and that, returning from that point to Lagrange, we found marching orders for Memphis, for which march I was prepared when I wrote that letter. Our course lay through a country more fertile and more highly cultivated than any we had met, but the weather being hot and dry, and the road exceedingly dusty, our troops were made to suffer very much. We accomplished nineteen miles the first day, and were halted at a town called Lafayette. From thence we dispatched a train of fifty wagons to Memphis for provisions, our rations having given out. These returned in safety, but a train of cars, which was started laden with returning soldiers, was intercepted by a force of cavalry, thrown from the track, and Colonel . . . with a number of soldiers taken prisoner. This circumstance, together with intelligence that Breckenridge had concentrated a force at Holly Springs, determined a counter-march with a view of attacking him at that point, and therefore our troops were brought where we now are, some ten miles from Lagrange and twenty-five from Holly Springs, where we shall probably go to-morrow.

The weather is becoming very warm, many of my command are suffering from the effects of the heat and the privations and discomforts to which they are necessarily subjected. With the exception of camp dysentery and diarrhoea, whatever it may be called, my own health is pretty good. The bowel complaint is of a very singular nature, and not to be combated with the ordinary remedies. I have suffered from it ever since the battle of Shiloh, more or less at different times.

Major Fisher has been very sick, he is now convalescent. We shall have a summer campaign right here in the cotton states. A furlough or leave of absence is a thing utterly impossible, therefore I make up my mind to stick it out. I had hoped after the evacuation of Corinth that there were hopes of a close of the war, but these hopes have proved delusions. McClellan is slow, we are much disappointed in his movements. As a consequence, Beauregard and Breckenridge are rallying in the South. The people to a man and woman are decidedly and unanimously "Secesh." We have no friends here but the slaves. The war will be a ten years' war at the least. Ohio must lose fifty thousand men for her quota before it is closed, and the sooner the draft is made upon her, the better I shall be pleased. . . . The war is terrible in its effects here. Homes destroyed, families ruptured, parted, never to meet again; fields and farms desolated, country ravaged, people starving. God has cursed the land. When can their evils be stayed?

There are beautiful forests and broad savannahs here; all fruits and cereals flourish; a land for milk and honey; if peace could come, plenty would follow. The insect life here is wonderful; such innumerable bugs and spiders, moths and winged and crawling things you never could imagine without seeing, while lizards and chameleons, of all sizes and colors, are constantly in pursuit of their game. It is no unusual thing for me to drive the lizards off my cot before I lie down at nights, and every night the spiders crawl over me by myriads. I have been bitten by spiders but once or twice, and with no serious effects, but I do suffer from lice, fleas, bedbugs, and wood-ticks.

My horses are all in tolerably good condition, though they miss their hay. There is no hay grown in this country — its place is supplied with blades of corn. Oats do not thrive here, either, and Northern horses feel the difference. Mine carry me very well notwithstanding, up to this time.

I like your strictures upon the newspapers, and am glad you understand them. Newspaper articles, unless they appear over the signatures of well-known and perfectly responsible parties, are regarded by the army, both off1cers and privates, worthless for information upon any current event, especially matters connected with the service. Mere puffs, they generally emanate from paid correspondents or scribblers, whose object is to write a man into notoriety, as they would publish a patent medicine or advertise a sale at auction.

You would all doubtless like to know more of me and my surroundings than I have it in my power to write. The faculty of description and vigor of memory may make many a fortune for the striving actor in scenes such as these transpiring about me. Every day is an incident, every night in reality a dream of romance. The moonlight, the forest, the bugle, the sentry, the alarm, the march, stealthy and catlike, stealing on the foe, or with loud alarm of drum and fife and flaunting of flag, dashing down to intimidate; the bivouac, the encampment, the gathering around the camp fires, the bottle, the pipe, the tale, the jest, all that you read of in novels, only a good deal more so, all these are my daily life. If one battle would suffice, but many and many a battle must be fought, rivers of blood must yet flow, before we can herald peace.

Well, dear children, Mamma will read this letter or a part of it to you, and while reading it, you must reflect that father is far down South on the line between Tennessee and Mississippi, in a large forest, on the banks of Wolf River, in a hot climate, where the cotton grows; that he is sitting under the shade of his tent, writing to you, surrounded by soldiers, and all the pomp and panoply of war, that he is battling or about going into battle to secure you the same rights and the same good government that was secured to him and his fathers by our Revolutionary forefathers, and you must pray for the success of his cause, and for his deliverance from the evil, and if he should fall in the battle, you must pray for the good of his soul, but always be tender and kind to your mother, your aunt, your teachers and friends.

God bless you all.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 217-20

Major General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, April 17, 1863

CAMP NEAR FALMOUTH, VA., April 17, 1863.

I regret to see you are in bad spirits and take so much to heart our apparent reverses. The affair at Charleston was pretty much as I expected, except I did think the ironclads would be able to pass Sumter and get at the town. I did not expect this would give us the place, or that they could reduce the batteries. They never have yet reduced any batteries of consequence, except those at Port Royal and Fort Donelson, but they have proved their capacity to run by them and stand being shot at, which I think they did in an eminent degree at Charleston. I see some of the papers are disposed to criticise and find fault with duPont, but I have just read a vigorous defense of him in the New York Tribune, so he is all right. You must not be so low-spirited. War is a game of ups and downs, and we must have our reverses mixed up with our successes. Look out for "Fighting Joe's" army, for the grand reaction in our favor. A big rain storm we had on the 14th has kept us quiet for awhile, but Joe says we are to do great things when we start.

The great lady in the camp is the Princess Slam Slam, who is quite a pretty young woman. The Prince Slam Slam has a regiment in Sigel's corps.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 366

General Robert E. Lee’s General Orders No. 2, February 14, 1865

HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES,

14th February, 1865.

General Orders, No. 2.

In entering upon the campaign about to open the General-in-Chief feels assured that the soldiers who have so long and so nobly borne the hardships and dangers of the war require no exhortation to respond to the calls of honor and duty.

With the liberty transmitted by their forefathers they have inherited the spirit to defend it.

The choice between war and abject submission is before them.

To such a proposal brave men with arms in their hands can have but one answer. They cannot barter manhood for peace nor the right of self-government for life or property.

But justice to them requires a sterner admonition to those who have abandoned their comrades in the hour of peril.

A last opportunity is afforded them to wipe out the disgrace and escape the punishment of their crimes.

By authority of the President of the Confederate States a pardon is announced to such deserters and men improperly absent as shall return to the commands to which they belong within the shortest possible time, not exceeding twenty days from the publication of this order, at the headquarters of the department in which they may be.

Those who may be prevented by interruption of communication may report within the time specified to the nearest enrolling officer or other officer on duty, to be forwarded as soon as practicable, and upon presenting a certificate from such officer showing compliance with the requirement will receive the pardon hereby offered.

Those who have deserted to the service of the enemy, or who have deserted after having been once pardoned for the same offense, and those who shall desert or absent themselves without authority after the publication of this order, are excluded from its benefits. Nor does the offer of pardon extend to other offenses than desertion and absence without permission.

By the same authority it is also declared that no general amnesty will again be granted, and those who refuse to accept the pardon now offered, or who shall hereafter desert or absent themselves without leave, shall suffer such punishment as the courts may impose, and no application for clemency will be entertained.

Taking new resolution from the fate which our enemies intend for us, let every man devote all his energies to the common defense.

Our resources, wisely and vigorously employed, are ample, and with a brave army, sustained by a determined and united people, success with God's assistance cannot be doubtful.

The advantage of the enemy will have but little value if we do not permit them to impair our resolution. Let us then oppose constancy to adversity, fortitude to suffering, and courage to danger, with the firm assurance that He who gave freedom to our fathers will bless the efforts of their children to preserve it.

R. E. LEE,

General.

SOURCE: John William Jones, Life and Letters of Robert Edward Lee: Soldier and Man, p. 353-4

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Thursday, June 11, 1863

The Thirty-fifth Iowa received marching orders. A report is that General Burnside with eight thousand troops went on an expedition up the Yazoo river today. Cannonading has been heard on all sides all day. News came that General Banks has Port Hudson surrounded and is now besieging the place.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 121

12th Regiment Infantry – 3 Months

Organized at Camp Jackson, Columbus, Ohio, April and May, 1861. Moved to Camp Dennison, Ohio, May 6, and duty there till June 28. Reorganized for three years June 28, 1861. Three months' men mustered out July 25, 1861.

SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1501

12th Regiment Infantry – 3 Years

Organized at Camp Dennison, Ohio, June 28, 1861. Left State for the Kanawha Valley, W. Va., July 6. Attached to Cox's Kanawha Brigade, W. Va., to September, 1861. Bonham's Brigade, Dist. of the Kanawha, W. Va., to October, 1861. 1st Brigade, District of the Kanawha, to March, 1862. 1st Brigade, Kanawha Division West Virginia, Dept. of the Mountains, to September, 1862. 1st Brigade, Kanawha Division, 9th Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, to October, 1862. 1st Brigade, Kanawha Division, District of West Virginia, Dept. of the Ohio, to March, 1863. 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 8th Army Corps, Middle Department, to June, 1863. 2nd Brigade, Scammon's Division, Dept. of West Virginia, to December, 1863. 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, Army of West Virginia, to April. 1864. 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry, Division West Virginia, to July, 1864.

SERVICE. – Action at Scary Creek, W. Va., July 17, 1861. Battle of Carnifex Ferry September 10. Operations in the Kanawha Valley, W. Va., and New River Region September to November. Gauley River September 12. Wilderness Ferry September 14. Hough's. Ferry September 16. Advance to Sewell Mountain September 24. Sewell Mountain September 25. At Hawk's Nest October 10 to November 1. Movement on Cotton Mountain and pursuit of Floyd November 1-18. Laurel Creek November 12 (Co. "H"). Duty at Charleston till April, 1862. Advance on Princeton April 22-May 1. Narrows of New River May 4. Operations on Flat Top Mountain May 20 to August 14. Scout in Wayne County July 24-26 (Detachment). Moved to Washington August 14-24. Pope's Campaign in Northern Virginia August 24-September 2. Action at Bull Run Bridge August 27. Maryland Campaign September 6-22. Battle of South Mountain, Md., September 14. Battle of Antietam September 16-17. March to Clear Springs October 8, thence to Hancock and to the Kanawha Valley, W. Va., October 14-November 17. Moved to Fayette Court House December 4, and duty there till May, 1864. Action at Blake's Farm May 9, 1863. Repulse of McCausland's attack on Fayetteville May 17-20, 1863. Fayette Court House May 19. Pursuit of Morgan's forces and patrol on the Ohio River July 17-26. Expedition from Charlestown to Lewisburg November 3-13. Action at Meadow Bluff December 4, 1863. Scammon's demonstration from the Kanawha Valley December 8-25, 1863. Action at Big Sewell Mountain and Meadow Bluff December 11. Lewisburg and Greenbrier River December 12. Near Meadow Bluff December 14. Crook's Raid on Virginia & Tennessee Railroad May 2-19. Princeton May 6 (Cos. "B," "D"). Battle of Cloyd's Mountain May 9. New River Bridge May 10. Hunter's Raid to Lynchburg May 26-July 1. Diamond Hill June 17. Lynchburg June 17-18. Retreat to Charleston June 19-July 1. Ordered to Columbus, Ohio, July 2. Veterans and Recruits transferred to 23rd Ohio Infantry. Mustered out July 11, 1864, expiration of term.

Regiment lost during service 3 Officers and 93 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 2 Officers and 77 Enlisted men by disease. Total 175.

SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1501

George E. Daniels, Sergeant, Co. I, 11th Iowa Infantry

Shiloh National Cemetery

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Mrs. Eliza Walter Smith & Helen Smith, June 21, 1862

HEADQUARTERS 54TH REGT. O. V. INF.,

LAGRANGE, TENNESSEE, June 21, 1862.

DEAR MOTHER AND HELEN:

We are now encamped at Lagrange, a most beautiful town in Tennessee, surrounded by lovely scenery, the country slightly undulating, watered by Wolf River, a clear, cold, and swift-running stream. This was the famous hunting-ground of the Chickasaw Indians, and here what was called the lost district, the disputed ground between Mississippi and Tennessee, to battle for which the militia was called out years ago. The place is celebrated for its college and female seminaries, and the very great beauty of its suburban residences. Its railroad facilities, its pure water, and healthy atmosphere have made it in past times a favorite resort for wealthy citizens from Memphis, Mobile, and further South, and luxury and refinement have characterized its inhabitants. Our troops were received here with chilling reserve. The stores were closed, the hotels refused accommodations to officers, and ladies, who had been unable to escape by flight to the plantations or elsewhere, shut themselves up. The men had pretty much all managed to get away. As the few, however, who were left came in contact with the rank and file, and began to discover that we were not the Goths and Vandals they had been led to believe, and also that the great lever, gold, was ready to be plied and piled, they wonderfully changed countenances, began to brighten, and the larders, poorly supplied, however, were opened. . . .

Our brigade had been here but a day when we were ordered to Holly Springs, distant some twenty-five miles south. We made there a forced march, going, returning, destroying a bridge and trestlework of a railroad within three days. We had a slight skirmish at a place nine miles beyond Holly Springs, in which we lost four wounded and killed eight of the enemy. Their infantry occupied the city, but fled at our approach. I was appointed Provost of the city, and my regimental flag floated from the Court-House. The history of that flag in this regard is somewhat remarkable — in a future letter I will give it to you. Holly Springs, as you know, is one of the principal cities of Mississippi, surrounded by magnificent plantations, in the midst of the cotton-growing region. The people are very rich, or rather have been, and are the true representatives of the South. Our reception there was somewhat different from what it had been here. All the prominent gentlemen of the town called upon me in my official capacity, and many of them tendered me the hospitalities of their houses, which in one or two instances I accepted. They had lost a great deal by the burning of cotton. Many of the wealthiest men had been ruined. They did not seem to sympathize with their own army that was devastating the land. The plantations along the march were very beautiful, the houses are built with a great deal of taste, the spacious lawns and parks and cultivated grounds kept trim and neat. This is the season for cultivating cotton, and hosts of slaves were in the fields, stopping work and running to the fences to see us pass, and to chaff with the men. They understand just as well what is going on as their masters. They seem fat and happy enough, but are pretty ragged. Suffering will be rife, however, through whatever regions these armies pass, and the South will groan at the desolation of its land. Bitterly, bitterly, will they rue the grievous sins they have committed, but never again will they be forced into union. The United States no longer exist, between the North and the South is a great gulf fixed, and the hearts of the people will never bridge it. We may conquer, but never subdue. Their lands are beautiful, their climate lovely, fruits and flowers, and magnificent forest trees. The holly and the pine, the live oak, the mimosa, the bay, the magnolia, are grand, and the mocking bird and thrush make them vocal. The people are strong in intellect, but enervated in body. The women are pretty, but pale. After all, perhaps Providence is working out some great design through the agency of this bloody war. It is a strange fact that our Northern men stand the effects of the climate better than those to the manner born. Perhaps a new infusion of better blood will regenerate. . . . I have this moment, even as I write, received an order to hold my troops in readiness to march towards Memphis at two o'clock this day. It is now twelve M. So you see there is but little time for private griefs or private joys. This is one great drawback to comfort in the army, you never know what will happen to you the next moment, and no sooner do you begin to rejoice that your “lines are cast in pleasant places,” than you are ordered off, you know not where. I keep Stephen worried out of his wits. . . . I entered the army the 9th day of last September, nearly ten months have past. In all that time I have never been absent from my post one single day or night.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 215-7

Major General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, April 14, 1863

CAMP NEAR FALMOUTH, April 14, 1863.

Yesterday I received a letter asking me to appoint a day to receive the sword, etc. I referred it to General Hooker, who replied that it was entirely out of the question, my being absent at this time, and recommending the postponement of the presentation, which I accordingly wrote to the committee. I am just as well satisfied, for I looked with great horror at the prospect of being made a lion, and having to roar for the benefit of outsiders. I trust now they will come quietly down here, make the presentation, and let me send the sword back to you, for it is too precious to carry in the field.

I have been busy all day making preparations for the march.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 366

General Robert E. Lee's General Orders No. 1

HEADQUARTERS CONFEDERATE ARMY,

February 9, 1865.

General Orders, No. 1.

In obedience to General Order No. 3, Adjutant and Inspector-General's Office, 6th February, 1865, I assume command of the military forces of the Confederate States.

Deeply impressed with the difficulties and responsibilities of the position, and humbly invoking the guidance of Almighty God, I rely for success upon the courage and fortitude of the Army, sustained by the patriotism and firmness of the people, confident that their united efforts, under the blessing of Heaven, will secure peace and independence.

The headquarters of the Army, to which all special reports and communications will be addressed, will be for the present with the Army of Northern Virginia. The stated and regular returns and reports of each army and department will be forwarded, as heretofore, to the office of the Adjutant and Inspector-General.

R. E. Lee,

General.

SOURCE: John William Jones, Life and Letters of Robert Edward Lee: Soldier and Man, p. 353

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Wednesday, June 10, 1863

The cool morning was followed by a rain all day ending at dark in a heavy windstorm. Companies E and D of the Eleventh Iowa worked all last night in cutting a road through the canebrakes to the rebels' breastworks. Skirmishing has been going on all day.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 121

Abraham Lincoln to Major-General Henry W. Halleck, July 14, 1862

WAR DEPARTMENT,

July 14, 1862.

Major-General HALLECK,  Corinth, Miss.:

I am very anxious – almost impatient – to have you here. Have due regard to what you leave behind. When can you reach here?

A. LINCOLN.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 11, Part 3 (Serial No. 14), p. 321

11th Ohio Infantry – 3 Months

Organized at Camp Dennison, Ohio, April 18-26, 1861. Duty at Camp Dennison, Ohio, till June 20. Reorganized for three years' service June 20, 1861. Three months' men mustered out July 20, 1861.

SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1500

11th Regiment Infantry – 3 Years

Organized at Camp Dennison, Ohio, June 20, 1861. Ordered to the Kanawha Valley, W. Va., July 7, 1861. Attached to Cox's Kanawha Brigade, West Virginia, to September, 1861. Benham's Brigade, District of the Kanawha, West Virginia, to October, 1861. 1st Brisade, District of the Kanawha, to March, 1862. 1st Brigade, Kanawha Division West Virginia, Dept. of the Mountains, to September, 1862. 1st Brigade, Kanawha Division, 9th Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, to October, 1862. 1st Brigade, Kanawha Division, District of West Virginia, Dept. of the Ohio, to February, 1863. Crook's Brigade, Baird's Division, Army of Kentucky, Dept. of the Cumberland, to June, 1863. 3rd Brigade, 4th Division, 14th Army Corps, Army of the Cumberland, to October, 1863. 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 14th Army Corps, to June, 1865.

SERVICE.--Action at Hawk's Nest, W. Va., August 20, 1861. Near Piggott's Mills, Big Run, August 25. Operations in the Kanawha Valley and New River Reglen October 19-November 16. Gauley Bridge November 10. Blake's Farm, Cotton Mountain, November 10-11. Moved to Point Pleasant December 11, and duty there till April 16, 1862. Operations in the Kanawha Valley April to August. Moved to Washington, D.C., August 18-24. Pope's Campaign in Northern Virginia August 25-September 2. Bull Run Bridge August 27. Maryland Campaign September 6-22. Frederick City, Md., September 12. Battle of South Mountain September 14. Battle of Antietam September 16-17. Moved to Hagerstown, Md., October 8, thence to Clarksburg and Summerville, W. Va., and duty at Summerville till January 24, 1863. Expedition to Cold Knob Mountain November 24-30, 1862. Lewis Mill on Sinking Creek November 26. Ordered to Nashville, Tenn., January 24, 1863, thence to Carthage February 22, and duty there till June. Near Carthage March 8 (2 Cos.). Scout to Rome March 24-25. Reconnoissance to McMinnville April 13. Middle Tennessee or Tullahoma Campaign June 23-July 7. Hoover's Gap June 24-26. Occupation of Middle Tennessee till August 16. Passage of Cumberland Mountains and Tennessee River and Chickamauga (Ga.) Campaign August 16-September 22. Catlett's Gap, Pigeon Mountain, September 15-18. Battle of Chickamauga September 19-21. Rossville Gap September 21. Siege of Chattanooga September 24-November 23. Reopening Tennessee River October 26-29. Brown's Ferry October 27. Chattanooga-Ringgold Campaign November 23-27. Orchard Knob November 23-24. Mission Ridge November 25. Demonstration on Dalton, Ga., February 22-27, 1864. Tunnel Hill, Buzzard's Roost Gap and Rocky Faced Ridge February 23-25. Veterans absent on furlough March and April. Atlanta (Ga.) Campaign May to September. Demonstrations on Rocky Faced Ridge May 8-11. Battle of Resaca May 14-15. Detached for duty as garrison at Resaca May 16 to June 10. Non-Veterans relieved for muster out June 10 and ordered to Cincinnati, Ohio. Mustered out June 21, 1864. Veterans and Recruits organizod as a Battalion and attached to 92nd Ohio Infantry till January, 1865, participating in operations about Marietta, Ga., and against Kenesaw Mountain June 10-July 2, 1864. Pine Hill June 11-14. Lost Mountain June 15-17. Assault on Kenesaw June 27. Smyrna Camp Ground July 4. Chattahoochie River July 5-17. Peach Tree Creek July 19-20. Siege of Atlanta July 22-August 25. Utoy Creek August 5-7. Flank movement on Jonesboro August 25-30. Battle of Jonesboro August 31-September 1. Lovejoy Station September 2-6. Operations against Hood in North Georgia and North Alabama September 29-November 3. March to the sea November 15-December 10. Siege of Savannah December 10-21. Campaign of the Carolinas January to April, 1865. Fayetteville, N. C., March 11. Battle of Bentonville March 19-21. Occupation of Goldsboro March 24. Advance on Raleigh April 10-14. Occupation of Raleigh April 14, Bennett's House April 26. Surrender of Johnston and his army. March to Washington, D.C., via Richmond, Va., April 29-May 20. Grand Review May 24. Mustered out June 11, 1865.

Regiment lost during service 4 Officers and 50 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 98 Enlisted men by disease. Total 152.

SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1500-1

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Elizabeth Budd Smith, June 10, 1862

HEADQUARTERS 54TH REGT. O. V. INF.,

CAMP CHEWALLA, MISS., June 10, 1862.

MY DEAR WIFE:

We have marched some fifteen miles beyond Corinth, and in a few moments shall proceed on our march to Grand Junction, some twenty miles from here and on the route to Memphis. I remained in occupation of Corinth three days, and was succeeded by General Halleck, who now occupies the quarters I left. The papers have scandalously falsified, as they usually do, the movements of Sherman's Division. A man in John Groesbeck's regiment claims the rather barren honor of flying the first flag over Corinth, when the fact is that mine, which was the first by two hours and forty minutes to enter the town, had been floating for that length of time. The town was under guard by my troops, and Major Fisher was acting as Provost Marshal (a post from which he was only the day before yesterday relieved) at the time the troops who claimed the credit entered. So much for newspapers, which are a tissue of falsehood and misrepresentations. These things I know you care nothing about, and indeed I would hardly take the trouble to explain except to avoid the absurdity which would attach to my former letters, if you believe the newspapers.

The weather is becoming pretty warm, though the nights continue cool, indeed I may say cold, for two or three blankets are comfortable, and there are no mosquitoes. We do not suffer so much from the wood ticks and jiggers as farther back. I am told that our march will lie through a high and tolerably fertile country, a matter to be much desired. Since our occupancy of Tennessee, all supplies have been scarce, the country people very poor and bereft of everything in the way of eatables. I hardly know what keeps them from starvation. . . . We think the back of the rebellion is broken in the Southwest, but we keep up a constant vigilance, for the foe is insidious. Beauregard's army must have been a good deal demoralized before the evacuation of Corinth, if we may believe the accounts of deserters and prisoners.

I suppose our destination is Memphis. They may make a stand against us on the way. We are looking anxiously for action from McClellan. Our army is the great centre, his the left, and the forces in Arkansas the right wing, and we ought to move forward together. We shall be victorious, we shall conquer, but we shall never subjugate this people. My opinions in this behalf, so often expressed, and more than a year ago, have never changed. They are a people very little understood at the North; their bitter hostility to the North will never change, certainly not with this generation; they have learned to fear us and to hate.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 214-5

Major General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, April 12, 1863

FALMOUTH, VA., April 12, 1863.

I feel very sad when I think of young Dehon and Hamilton Kuhn, both so full of life and promising so much; to be cut off in the way they were, is truly mournful, and I feel sometimes as if I was individually responsible, and in some measure the cause of the misfortune of their friends.

I have had another hard day's work. No sooner had the President left, than a Major General Follarde, of the Swiss army, comes down here, with orders to Hooker to show him every attention, and as he does not speak English, and I have some pretensions to speaking French, Hooker turned him over to me, and I have, to-day, been taking him all through my camps and showing him my command. He seems like all foreign officers of rank, intelligent and educated. He expressed himself delighted and wonder-struck with all he saw, and says our troops will compare favorably with the best troops in Europe, and he has seen them all. If he goes back to Philadelphia, I will give him a letter to you, for I think he will interest you.

I note what you say of General Hooker. I think he will outlive that scandal, for it most certainly is a scandal. Whatever may have been his habits in former times, since I have been associated with him in the army I can bear testimony of the utter falsehood of the charge of drunkenness.

I spoke to the President when here about Franklin, and endeavored to convince him that the whole affair turned on a misapprehension, Burnside thinking he was saying and ordering one thing and Franklin understanding another. I know that Franklin did not, nor did any of those around him, believe or understand that Burnside intended our attack for the main attack, which Burnside now avers was always his intention.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 365-6