December 1st.–A mixed party of American officers and English went to-day to the post at Great Falls, about sixteen or seventeen miles up the Potomac, and were well repaid by the charming scenery, and by a visit to an American military station in a state of nature. The captain in command told us over a [...]

Thanksgiving Day on the 28th was celebrated by enormous drunkenness in the army. The weather varied between days of delicious summer–soft, bright, balmy, and beautiful beyond expression–and days of wintry storm, with torrents of rain. Some excitement was caused at the end of the month by the report I had received information from England that [...]

November 25th.–I remarked the other evening that, with all the disorder in Washington, there are no thieves. Next night, as we were sitting in our little symposium, a thirsty soldier knocked at the door for a glass of water. He was brought in and civilly treated. Under the date of the 27th, accordingly, I find [...]

November 22nd.–All the American papers have agreed that the Trent business is quite according to law, custom, and international comity, and that England can do nothing. They cry out so loudly in this one key there is reason to suspect they have some inward doubts. General McClellan invited all the world, including myself, to see [...]

November 20th.–To-day a grand review, the most remarkable feature of which was the able disposition made by General McDowell to march seventy infantry regiments, seventeen batteries, and seven cavalry regiments, into a very contracted space, from the adjoining camps. Of the display itself I wrote a long account, which is not worth repeating here. Among [...]

November 19th.–I rarely sat down to write under a sense of greater responsibility, for it is just possible my letter may contain the first account of the seizure of the Southern Commissioners which will reach England; and, having heard all opinions and looked at authorities, as far as I could, it appears to me that [...]

November 18th.–There is a storm of exultation sweeping over the land. Wilkes is the hero of the hour. I saw Mr. F. Seward at the State Department at ten o’clock; but as at the British Legation the orders are not to speak of the transaction, so at the State Department a judicious reticence is equally [...]

November 17th.–For my sins I went to see a dress parade of the 6th Regular Cavalry early this morning, and underwent a small purgatory from the cold, on a bare plain, whilst the men and officers, with red cheeks and blue noses, mounted on horses with staring coats, marched, trotted, and cantered past. The papers [...]

November 16th.–A cold, raw day. As I was writing, a small friend of mine, who appears like a stormy petrel in moments of great storm, fluttered into my room, and having chirped out something about a “Jolly row”–”Seizure of Mason and Slidell”–”British flag insulted,” and the like, vanished. Somewhat later, going down 17th Street, I [...]

November 15th.–Horse-dealers are the same all the world over. To-day comes one with a beast for which he asked £50. “There was a Government agent looking after this horse for one of them French princes, I believe, just as I was talking to the Kentuck chap that had him. ‘John,’ says he, ‘that’s the best-looking [...]

November 14th.–Rode to cavalry camp, and sat in front of Colonel Emory’s tent with General Stoneman, who is chief of the cavalry, and Captain Pleasanton; heard interesting anecdotes of the wild life on the frontiers, and of bushranging in California, of lassoing bulls and wild horses and buffaloes, and encounters with grizly bears–interrupted by a [...]

November 13th.–Mr. Charles Green, who was my host at Savannah, and Mr. Low, of the same city, have been arrested and sent to Fort Warren. Dining with Mr. Seward, I heard accidentally that Mrs. Low had also been arrested, but was now liberated. The sentiment of dislike towards England is increasing, because English subjects have [...]

November 12th.–An irruption of dirty little boys in the streets shouting out, “Glorious Union victory! Charleston taken!” The story is that Burnside has landed and reduced the forts defending Port Royal. I met Mr. Fox, Assistant-Secretary to the Navy, and Mr. Hay, Secretary to Mr. Lincoln, in the Avenue. The former showed me Burnside’s despatches [...]

November 11th.–The United States have now, according to the returns, 600,000 infantry, 600 pieces of artillery, 61,000 cavalry in the field, and yet they are not only unable to crush the Confederates, but they cannot conquer the Secession ladies in their capital. The Southern people here trust in a break-down in the North before the [...]

November 10th.–Visiting Mr. Mure the other day, who was still an invalid at Washington, I met a gentleman named Maury, who had come to Washington to see after a portmanteau which had been taken from him on the Canadian frontier by the police. He was told to go to the State Department and claim his [...]

November 9th.–Colonel Wilmot, R. A., who has come down from Canada to see the army, spent the day with Captain Dahlgren at the Navy Yard, and returned with impressions favourable to the system. He agrees with Dahlgren, who is dead against breach-loading, but admits Armstrong has done the most that can be effected with the [...]

November 8th.– Colonel Emory made us laugh tins morning by an account of our Amphytrion of the night before, who came to him with a very red eye and curious expression of face to congratulate the regiment on the success of the ball. “The most beautiful thing of all was,'” said he, “Colonel, I did [...]

November 7th.–After such bad weather, the Indian summer, I’été de St. Martin, is coming gradually, lighting up the ruins of the autumn’s foliage still clinging to the trees, giving us pure, bright, warm days, and sunsets of extraordinary loveliness. Drove out to Bladensburgh with Captain Haworth, and discovered that my waggon was intended to go [...]

November 6th.–Instead of Mr. Everett and Mr. Johnson, Mr. Thurlow Weed and Bishop Hughes will pay a visit to Europe in the Federal interests. Notwithstanding the adulation of everything French, from the Emperor down to a Zouave’s gaiter, in the New York press there is an uneasy feeling respecting the intentions of France, founded on [...]

November 5th.–Small banquets, very simple and tolerably social, are the order of the day as winter closes around us; the country has become too deep in mud for pleasant excursions, and at times the weather is raw and cold. General McDowell, who dined with us to-day, maintains there will be no difficulty in advancing during [...]

November 4th.–General Fremont will certainly be recalled. There is not the smallest incident to note.

November 3rd.–For some reason or another, a certain set of papers have lately taken to flatter Mrs. Lincoln in the most noisome manner, whilst others deal in dark insinuations against her loyalty, Union principles, and honesty. The poor lady is loyal as steel to her family and to Lincoln the first; but she is accessible [...]

November 2nd.–A tremendous gale of wind and rain blew all day, and caused much uneasiness, at the Navy Department and elsewhere, for the safety of the Burnside expedition. The Secessionists are delighted, and those who can, say “Afflavit Deus et hostes dissipantur.” There is a project to send secret non-official commissioners to Europe, to counteract [...]

November 1st.–Again stagnation; not the smallest intention of moving; General Scott’s resignation, of which I was aware long ago, is publicly known, and he is about to go to Europe, and end his days probably in France. McClellan takes his place, minus the large salary. Riding back from camp, where I had some trouble with [...]