WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1861.
A cold windy day with some rain, as unpleasant a “May day” as could well be. Have been in the office all day as usual surrounded by a crowd of soldiers when out of my room. Have a new 2nd Assistant, have today been “breaking him in.” His name is C H Upton of V.A. The 12th NY Regt are now building barracks on Franklin Square near house where they are to be stationed. The troops keep coming and will continue to come I suppose until we have forty or fifty thousand here. There was a mail from the North this morning, the first in 12 days. Did not go from Home after dinner, to bed early.
The three diary manuscript volumes, Washington during the Civil War: The Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, 1861-1865, are available online at The Library of Congress.