SATURDAY 31 This has been a delightful day, cool and bright. Large numbers of troops crossed the river last night, 30,000 at least, but we have heard nothing of any fight as yet. I have been model making part of the day. Was at the Pat office awhile. Went to market before dark. In the [...]

Capture of the Forts at Cape Hatteras inlet-First day, fleet opening fire and troops landing in the surf. Waud, Alfred R. , Artist. [1861] Image. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004660375/. (Accessed August 31, 2016.)

Saturday, [August] 31,–Mustered today. I called the roll of our five companies and of McMullen’s Battery.

AUGUST 31st.—We have bad news to-day. My wife and children are the bearers of it. They returned to the city with the tidings that all the women and children were ordered to leave Newbern. The enemy have attacked and taken Fort Hatteras, making many prisoners, and threaten Newbern next. This is the second time my [...]

August 31st.–Congress adjourns to-day. Jeff Davis ill. We go home on Monday if I am able to travel. Already I feel the dread stillness and torpor of our Sahara of a Sand Hill creeping into my veins. It chills the marrow of my bones. I am reveling in the noise of city life. I know [...]

Jefferson Barracks Mo August 31 1861 My dear wife This is the last day of the long month which closes another summer. It has been full of stirring events in which I have extensively participated. The country has been in great commotion and the gloom that has overshadowed us does not seem to lessen. On [...]

Daily Chronicle & Sentinel [Augusta, GA], August 31, 1861 . . . The weather has recently been very wet in Virginia, and it is even now getting quite cool, especially in the mountains. And right now the soldiers need good blankets and flannel shirts almost as much as they every will. Woolen shirts, next to [...]

Saturday, 31st–Our men arrived from Keokuk this morning. They did not get into action with the “secesh” while at Keokuk as reported. The companies for the Eighth Iowa Infantry are almost completed and the regiment will be ready to leave for the South at a moment’s notice. They are to receive the clothing and arms [...]

August 31st.–A month during which I have been exposed to more calumny, falsehood, not to speak of danger, than I ever passed through, has been brought to a close. I have all the pains and penalties attached to the digito monstrari et dicier hie est, in the most hostile sense. On going into Willard’s the [...]

August 31.–At Manch Chunk, Pa., some persons entered the Carbon Democrat office, and destroyed the type, upset the stands, &c. The press was not disturbed.–N. Y. World, September 2. –At Indianapolis (Ind.) a convention of sympathizers with the “Peace party” assembled at the Court House. Hon. Robert L. Walpole was made chairman, and while addressing [...]

August 31, 1861 Samuel Cooper, Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, Joseph E. Johnston and P. G. T. Beauregard are promoted to full general.

A bushwhacker, or Confederate guerilla fighter. Wood engraving, American, 1867 “Civil War Guerilla, Engraving, 1667.” Granger. Accessed August 29, 2021. www.granger.com/results.asp?inline=true&image=0066702….

FRIDAY 30 Excitement is again on tiptoe as a general battle is expected now day by day on the other side of the River. The entrenchments of the rebels can be seen from the top of the Capitol dome with a good Spyglass. Skirmishing among the sentries occurs daily. The Newspapers here say nothing. I [...]

Friday, 30.–Last night Dr. Joe and I did our best to house in Mrs. Sea’s barn (a good Union lady, two sons in the army), the Germans of the Ninth, who lay in the mud, without shelter. Spent today in a jolly way, resting. ______ FRENCH CREEK, August 30, 1861, Friday Night. DEAREST:–”The best laid [...]

AUGUST 30th.—Gen. Floyd has had a fight in the West, and defeated an Ohio regiment. I trust they were of the Puritan stock, and not the descendants of Virginians.

Friday, 30th–No news of importance. There are still some companies arriving in camp for the Eighth Iowa, and they are still adding new recruits to the Second Iowa Cavalry, which is in camp at the Fair Grounds.

30th.–It is now between two and three months since our regiment went into camp. We have had nearly three hundred cases of measles, with about as many of diarrhœa, dysentery and fever. Not one quarter of the regiment but has been sick in some way, and yet last night every man who left home with [...]

August 30.–General Fremont, at St. Louis, issued a proclamation declaring martial law throughout the State of Missouri; the disorganized condition of the State Government rendering it both proper and necessary that he should assume the administrative powers of the State. The lines of the army of occupation were declared to extend from Leavenworth, by way [...]

August 30, 1861 John C. Fremont declares martial law in Missouri and frees slaves of Missouri Confederates. A Chronological History of the Civil War in America1 Fort Morgan, at Okracoke, abandoned by the rebels. (Alabama) Major-Gen. Fremont issued a proclamation declaring martial law throughout Missouri, and also declaring that the property of rebels should be [...]

The fatal shooting of Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth, Colonel of the New York Fire Zouaves and the first notable Northern fatality of the Civil War, in Alexandria, Virginia on 24 May 1861. Steel engraving, 19th century. “Zouave Fatality, 1861.” Granger. Accessed August 29, 2021. www.granger.com…. Mike’s notes: Image restoration note – This image has been digitally [...]

August 29th.–No more feminine gossip, but the licensed slanderer, the mighty Russell, of the Times. He says the battle of the 21st was fought at long range: 500 yards apart were the combatants. The Confederates were steadily retreating when some commotion in the wagon train frightened the “Yanks,” and they made tracks. In good English, [...]

THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 1861. It has rained almost incessantly today and I have done but little but stay in the house. Mr Brownson and myself went down to the Pat office and found that the “knapsack” had passed. Mr B. left for home on the 21/2 train. I went to the Depot with him. The [...]

Thursday, 29.–Moved into the Presbyterian church to await our tents and train.

AUGUST 29th.—We have intelligence from the North that immense preparations are being made for our destruction; and some of our people begin to say, that inasmuch as we did not follow up the victory at Manassas, it was worse than a barren one, having only exasperated the enemy, and stimulated the Abolitionists to renewed efforts. [...]