Tuesday, April 14th. Ah! another delightful glimpse of society has been offered to our charmed view. Such a treat has not often fallen to our lot. Good Mrs. Greyson, in her anxiety to make all around her happy, determined we should have a dance. I should say “Miriam”; for Mrs. Bull and Mrs. Ivy never [...]
Camp 103d Illinois Infantry, Lagrange, Tenn., April 14, 1863. I am brigadier officer of the day again, and of course it is a rainy, muddy, disagreeable day. Visiting the pickets occupied my whole forenoon and I rode through a constant rain. You may consider it an evidence of perverted taste, or maybe demoralization, or possibly [...]
APRIL 14th.—We have nothing additional from Gen. Wise’s expedition against Williamsburg; but it was deprecated by our people here, whose families and negroes have been left in that vicinity. They argue that we cannot hold the town, or any portion of the Peninsula in the neighborhood; and when the troops retire, the enemy will subject [...]
Monday, April 13th. Having nothing to do, I may as well go on with the history of our wanderings. When the cars were moving off with the handsome Mr. Howard, mother turned to a gentleman who seemed to own the place, and asked to be shown the hotel. He went out, and presently returning with [...]
APRIL 13th.—The Federal monitors, gun-boats, and transports no more menace the City of Charleston! The fleet has sailed away, several of the iron-clads towed out of the harbor being badly damaged. But before leaving that part of the coast, the Yankees succeeded in intercepting and sinking the merchant steamer Leopard, having 40,000 pairs of shoes, [...]
Madisonville, Sunday, April 12th, 1863. We arrived here about five last evening, and, strange to say, the journey, fatiguing as it was, has not altogether disabled me. But I must go back to Clinton to account for this new change. It would never do to take more than a hundred miles at a single jump [...]
APRIL 12th.—Gen. Van Dorn, it is reported, has captured or destroyed another gun-boat in the West. Night before last another riot was looked for in this city by the mayor, and two battalions of Gen. Elzey’s troops were ordered into the city. If the President could only see the necessity of placing this city under [...]
APRIL 11th.—Gen. Beauregard telegraphs that Gen. Walker has destroyed another Federal gun-boat in Coosa River. They are looking for a renewal of the attack on Charleston, and are ready for it. Gen. Lee writes that he is about sending a cavalry brigade into Loudon County to bring off commissary’s and quartermaster’s stores. This will frighten [...]
APRIL 10th.—We are not informed of a renewal of the attack on Charleston. It is said our shot penetrated the turret of the Keokuk, sunk. In New York they have been exulting over the capture of Charleston, and gold declined heavily. This report was circulated by some of the government officials, at Washington, for purposes [...]
APRIL 9th.—Nothing additional has occurred at Charleston, the enemy not having renewed the attack. At Vicksburg all was quiet, and the enemy abandoning their canal. Such news must have a depressing effect upon the North. They will see that their monitors and iron-clads have lost their terrors. They have lost some twenty war steamers within [...]
Wednesday, Clinton, April 8th, 1863. Our last adieux are said, and Linwood is left behind, “it may be for years, and it may be forever.” My last hours were spent lying on the sofa on the gallery, with Lydia at my feet, Helen Carter sitting on the floor at my side, while all the rest [...]
APRIL 8th.—We learn to-day that the enemy bombarded our forts at Charleston, yesterday, two hours and a half. But few of our men were injured, and the forts sustained no damage of consequence. On the other hand, several of the iron-clads and monitors of the enemy were badly crippled; one of the latter, supposed to [...]
April 8, 1863, The Charleston Mercury (CORRESPONDENCE OF THE MERCURY.) RICHMOND, Saturday, April 4. The cold March wind blowing this morning is fast drying the roads and paving the way to army operations, which the light April showers will hardly put a stop to. HOOKER’S army must be demoralized, if the half we hear from [...]
Tuesday, April 7th. I believe that it is for true that we are to leave for New Orleans, via Clinton and Ponchatoula, this evening. Clinton, at least, I am sure of. Lilly came down for me yesterday, and according to the present programme, though I will not answer for it in an hour from now, [...]
APRIL 7th.—Nothing definite has transpired at Charleston, or if so, we have not received information of it yet. From the West, we have accounts, from Northern papers, of the failure of the Yankee Yazoo expedition. That must have its effect. Judge Campbell, Assistant Secretary of War, has decided in one instance (page 125, E. B. [...]
Board of Survey Office, Lagrange, Tenn., April 6, 1863. I was in Memphis a few days since. It is quite a lovely town and quite Northern-like in its general appearance. Many of the blocks would pass muster creditably in Chicago, though the numerous fires it has furnished for the edification of the “Vandal Yankees” have [...]
APRIL 6th.—It seems that it was a mistake about the enemy’s monitors approaching the forts in Charleston harbor; but the government has dispatches to the effect that important movements are going on, not very distant from Charleston, the precise nature of which is not yet permitted to transpire. Generals Johnston and Bragg write that Gen. [...]
April 6, 1863, Savannah Republican (Georgia) We desire to purchase any quantity of clean linen and cotton rags, to be made up into paper, and we are willing to pay the highest market price in cash. They will also be received in payment of all dues to this office. Will our subscribers everywhere interest themselves [...]
APRIL 5th.—Snow fell all night, and a depth of several inches covers the earth this morning. It will soon melt, however, as it is now raining. The Northern invaders who anticipate a pleasant sojourn during the winter and spring in this climate, have been very disagreeably disappointed in these expectations. A surgeon was arrested yesterday [...]
APRIL 4th.—It is the belief of some that the riot was a premeditated affair, stimulated from the North, and executed through the instrumentality of emissaries. Some of the women, and others, have been arrested. We have news of the capture of another of the enemy’s gunboats, in Berwick Bay, Louisiana, with five guns. It is [...]
APRIL 3d.—Gen. D. H. Hill writes from North Carolina that the business of conscription is miserably mismanaged in that State. The whole business, it seems, has resolved itself into a machine for making money and putting pets in office. No account of yesterday’s riot appeared in the papers to-day, for obvious reasons. The mob visited [...]
APRIL 2d.—This morning early a few hundred women and boys met as by concert in the Capitol Square, saying they were hungry, and must have food. The number continued to swell until there were more than a thousand. But few men were among them, and these were mostly foreign residents, with exemptions in their pockets. [...]
APRIL 1st.—It is said we have taken Washington, a village in North Carolina. And it is represented that large supplies of meat, etc. can be taken from thence and the adjacent counties. Every day we look for important intelligence from Charleston, and from the West. Mr. Seddon, the Secretary of War, has receded from his [...]
Tuesday, March 31st. “To be, or not to be; that’s the question.” Whether ‘t is nobler in the Confederacy to suffer the pangs of unappeasable hunger and never-ending trouble, or to take passage to a Yankee port, and there remaining, end them. Which is best? I am so near daft that I cannot pretend to [...]
The following material contains wording that may be offensive to many in the world of today. However, the work is provided unedited for its historical content and context. Camp 103d Illinois Infantry, Lagrange, Tenn., March 31, 1863. I have lost my negro, Bob. The cavalry have been indulging in a pretty rough fight near here, [...]