January 3d. Weather permitting, we have company, battalion drill, and dress parade. Weather very cold at this time. We have to lie close to the fires when off duty or post. Sergeants must keep awake all night. Corporals get sleep and rest when their reliefs are off post.
Sunday, January 1st, 1865.–Snowed a few inches in depth during the night–clear and cool morning. The new year begins with the new rumor that Gen. Hood has turned upon Gen. Thomas and beaten him. This is believed by many. Hood’s army was not destroyed, and he retreated from before Nashville with some 20,000 men. Doubtless [...]
January 1st. Camp at Halltown, where we are going through life doing the duty of a soldier, in winter quarters. Many new recruits are being added to our company, and the regiment. The sick and wounded who have recovered are also coming back. All returning members and recruits are greeted as fresh fish. Our camp [...]
No. 19 Dauphine St., Saturday night, December 31st, 1864. One year ago, in my little room in the Camp Street house, I sat shivering over Tennyson and my desk, selfishly rejoicing over the departure of a year that had brought pain and discomfort only to me, and eagerly welcoming the dawning of the New One [...]
December 31st. This is the last day of the year. All is quiet at our camp on this high hill. Not very much snow or real cold weather. We manage to keep comfortable. At our reserve picket post we have built a large inclosure, made of logs and dirt, surrounded by small evergreen trees, a [...]
Guerrilla warfare in the American Civil War followed the same general patterns of irregular warfare conducted in 19th century Europe. Structurally, they can be divided into three different types of operations: the so-called ‘people’s war’, ‘partisan warfare’, and ‘raiding warfare’. Each had distinct characteristics that were common practice during the Civil War (1861–1865).
December 31st.–The last day of the year. Snowing and wet. Gen. H. Cobb writes that the existing Conscription Bureau is a failure so far as Georgia, Alabama, etc. are concerned, and can never put the men in the field. Wm. Johnston, president of the Charlotte (N. C.) and South Carolina Railroad, suggests the construction, immediately, [...]
December 30th.–A clear night and frosty morning. We have no news except that gleaned from Northern papers. Gen. Hood is unable to cross the Tennessee River (now swollen), and would soon be attacked again by superior numbers. Congress was in secret session yesterday, probably perfecting the bill for the suspension of the privilege of habeas [...]
December 29th.–Rained all night; spitting snow this morning. Although Gen. Bragg announces that the enemy’s fleet has disappeared off Wilmington, still the despondency which has seized the croakers remains. It has probably sailed against Charleston, to co-operate with Sherman. Sherman says officially that he got, with Savannah, about 1000 prisoners, 150 heavy guns, nearly 200 [...]
December 28th.–Rained all night; warm. A large stable burned down within sixty yards of our dwelling, last night, and not one of the family heard the uproar attending it. Gen. Bragg telegraphs the President that the enemy failed to reduce Fort Fisher, and that the troops landed above the fort have re-embarked. But he says [...]
December 27th.–A night of rain–morning of fog and gloom. At last we have an account of the evacuation of Savannah. Also of the beginning of the assault on Fort Fisher and Caswell below Wilmington, with painful apprehensions of the result; for the enemy have landed troops above the former fort, and found no adequate force [...]
December 27th.–Oh, why did we go to Camden? The very dismalest Christmas overtook us there. Miss Rhett went with us–a brilliant woman and very agreeable. “The world, you know, is composed,” said she, “of men, women, and Rhetts” (see Lady Montagu). Now, we feel that if we are to lose our negroes, we would as [...]
December 26th –Raining–rained all night. The dark and dismal weather, together with our sad reverses, have made the countenances of croakers in the streets and in the offices more gloomy and somber than ever, foreboding evil in the future. No one doubts the evacuation of Savannah, and I suppose it must be so. Hardee had [...]
Sunday, December 25th. Christmas !–Clear and pleasant– white frost. All quiet below. But it is believed on the street that Savannah has been evacuated, some days ago. I have not yet seen any official admission of the fact. We have quite a merry Christmas in the family; and a compact that no unpleasant word shall [...]
December 25th. Christmas at Halltown. We hope this will be our last Christmas in the service, and that the war will soon be over. We write many letters and receive a large mail every day, coming from Harper’s Ferry. All our shacks have small stoves, so that we use much of our time cutting wood. [...]
CAMP THREE MILES NORTH OF PETERSBURG, Christmas Day, Dec. 25, ’64. My Dear Mother: I intended to have written the day after getting here, but it rained all day and the coldest kind of a rain too. The next day we received orders to move. We had almost completed our winter quarters and the boys [...]
December 24th.–Christmas eve! Clear and cold. A dispatch from Hon. J. L. Orr and H. V. Johnson (on their way home) informs the Secretary that from the delay in the transportation of troops over the Piedmont Railroad, there must be either criminal neglect or treachery concerned in it. Again it is rumored that Savannah has [...]
December 23d–Bright and very cold. A storm has driven off a portion of the enemy’s fleet before Wilmington. The raid toward Gordonsville and Charlottesville is not progressing rapidly. We shall have a force to meet it. Besides the demonstration against Savannah (from which place we have no recent tidings), it appears that an attempt on [...]
December 22d.–Clear and cold. We have nothing from below. From Wilmington, we learn there is much commotion to resist the armada launched against that port. Gen. Lee is sending troops via the Danville Road in that direction. The wire has been cut between this and Gordonsville, by the scouts of the raiders launched in that [...]
Green Square, Savannah, Camp 103d Illinois “Provost Guards.” December 22, 1864. We have just by a hair’s breadth missed what would have been a most unpleasant fight. We lay on the west side of the Ogeechee, with the enemy on the opposite shore, strongly fortified. We had crawled through the mud and established a line [...]
December 21st.–Raining; rained all night. The following dispatch was received this morning: “Wilmington, December 20th, 1864, 10 A.M.–The head of the enemy’s fleet arrived off this port during last night. Over thirty steamers are now assembling, and more are following.–Braxton Bragg.” It may be hoped that Gen. Bragg will do something more than chronicle the [...]
December 20th.–A brighter morning, cool and clear. The President was at work yesterday. He and the Secretary and Gen. Cooper put their heads together to make up a regiment for Col. Miller in Mississippi, and designate the two field officers to be under him–from two battalions and two unattached companies. If the Northern (purporting to [...]
December 19th.–The darkest and most dismal day that ever dawned upon the earth, except one. There was no light when the usual hour came round, and later the sun refused to shine. There was fog, and afterward rain. Northern papers say Hood has been utterly routed, losing all his guns! A letter from Mr. –– [...]
Before Savannah, December 19, 1864. We have only been here a couple of days, but to-night we are to make and occupy a line within 700 yards of the Rebels.
December 19th.–The deep waters are closing over us and we are in this house, like the outsiders at the time of the flood. We care for none of these things. We eat, drink, laugh, dance, in lightness of heart. Doctor Trezevant came to tell me the dismal news. How he piled on the agony! Desolation, [...]