Tuesday, July 14, 2026

William Howard Russell’s Diary: Fortress Monroe.—General Butler.—Hospital accommodation.—Wounded soldiers.—Aristocratic pedigrees.—A great gun.—Newport News.—Fraudulent contractors.—Artillery practice.—Contraband negroes.—Confederate lines.—Tombs of American loyalists.—Troops and contractors.—Duryea’s New York Zouaves.—Military calculations.

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July 14th.–At six o’clock this morning the steamer arrived at the wharf under the walls of Fortress Monroe, which presented a very different appearance from the quiet of its aspect when first I saw it, some months ago. Camps spread around it, the parapets lined with sentries, guns looking out towards the land, lighters and [...]

My Diary North and South – William Howard Russell

“The latest reliable news is that we are neither in the United States or State service, nor ever have been..,”–Army letters of Oliver Willcox Norton.

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Camp Wright, Hulton, Penm., July 14, 1861. Dear Sister L.:– I spent the morning of the Fourth in writing letters. In the afternoon Colonel Grant read the Declaration of Independence, and Captain Porter delivered an oration to the soldiers and citizens in a neighboring grove, after which we had a review of the four regiments [...]

Civil War Day-by-Day