July 25, 1861

• With his troops’ enlistment expiring, Robert Patterson is relieved of duty in the Shenandoah Valley. He had failed to hold Joseph Johnston in Winchester to prevent Johnston from moving east to support Beauregard at Bull Run.
• The United States Congress passes the Crittenden–Johnson Resolution, stating that the war is being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery.
• The U. S. Congress approves the use of volunteers to put down the rebellion.

A Chronological History of the Civil War in America¹

• Governor of New York called for 25,000 additional troops.
• Skirmish at Harrisonville, Wa.
• Gen. McClellan takes command of the Army of the Potomac.

1. A Chronological History of the Civil War in America by Richard Swainson Fisher, New York, Johnson and Ward, 1863

July 24.–A.M. our regiment was reviewed by the Governor and Major-General Frémont. It was a gratifying scene. The Colonel (Frémont–I must always think of the man of fifty-six [as] the colonel) looked well. How he inspires confidence and affection in the masses of people! The night before I was introduced to him at the American. He is a romantic, rather perhaps than a great, character. But he is loyal, brave, and persevering beyond all compare. Lucy and Laura were present.

CAMP CHASE, July 24, 1861.

DEAR UNCLE:–I am surrounded by the bustle and confusion attendant upon a hurried leaving of camp. We go tomorrow at 5 A. M. to Zanesville by railroad, thence down the Muskingum on steamboats to Marietta, and on the Ohio to Ripley Landing, a short distance from Point Pleasant in Virginia. We are to be a part of General Rosecrans’ force against Wise.

Last night I had a good chat with Frémont. He is a hero. All his words and acts inspire enthusiasm and confidence. He and the governor reviewed our regiment today. Lucy, Laura, and many friends were present. It was a stirring scene. I wish you could have been here. You would subscribe heartily to General Fremont. Good-bye. My saddest feeling–my almost only sad feeling–is leaving you in such bad health.

Affectionately,

R. B. HAYES.

P.S.–Always send me full sheets of paper–the blank sheet is so useful. The use and scarcity of paper is appalling.

S. BIRCHARD.

July 24th.–Here Mr. Chesnut opened my door and walked in. Out of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh. I had to ask no questions. He gave me an account of the battle as he saw it (walking up and down my room, occasionally seating himself on a window sill, but too restless to remain still many moments); and told what regiments he was sent to bring up. He took the orders to Colonel Jackson, whose regiment stood so stock still under fire that they were called a “stone wall.” Also, they call Beauregard, Eugene, and Johnston, Marlboro. Mr. Chesnut rode with Lay’s cavalry after the retreating enemy in the pursuit, they following them until midnight. Then there came such a fall of rain–rain such as is only known in semitropical lands.

In the drawing-room, Colonel Chesnut was the “belle of the ball;” they crowded him so for news. He was the first arrival that they could get at from the field of battle. But the women had to give way to the dignitaries of the land, who were as filled with curiosity as themselves–Mr. Barnwell, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Cobb, Captain Ingraham, etc.

Wilmot de Saussure says Wilson of Massachusetts, a Senator of the United States, ¹ came to Manassas, en route to Richmond, with his dancing shoes ready for a festive scene which was to celebrate a triumph. The New York Tribune said: “In a few days we shall have Richmond, Memphis, and New Orleans. They must be taken and at once.” For “a few days” maybe now they will modestly substitute “in a few years.”

They brought me a Yankee soldier’s portfolio from the battle-field. The letters had been franked by Senator Harlan. ² One might shed tears over some of the letters. Women, wives and mothers, are the same everywhere. What a comfort the spelling was! We had been willing to admit that their universal free-school education had put them, rank and file, ahead of us literarily, but these letters do not attest that fact. The spelling is comically bad.

______

¹ Henry Wilson, son of a farm laborer and self-educated, who rose to much prominence in the Anti-Slavery contests before the war. He was elected United States Senator from Massachusetts in 1855, holding the office until 1873, when he resigned, having been elected Vice-President of the United States on the ticket with Ulysses S. Grant.

² James Harlan, United States Senator from Iowa from 1855 to 1865. In 1865 he was appointed Secretary of the Interior.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 1861.

This has been a delightful day and one full of excitement and interest. The Ave has been thronged all day with soldiers. Small squads of them have been strolling into the City and all had their story of hair breadth escapes to tell surrounded by an eager crowd of listeners. Most of the Regts who were in the Action have returned to this side and taken up their old quarters, and other fresh troops have been sent over the River. I was at Willards this evening. The City is now overflowing. Sergent M Goodrich stayed with me tonight.

______

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.

JULY 24th.—Yesterday we received a letter from Col. Bartow, written just before the battle (in which he fell, his letter being received after the announcement of his death), urging the appointment of his gallant young friend Lamar to a lieutenancy. I noted these facts on the back of his letter, with the Secretary’s approbation, and also that the request had been granted, and placed the letter, perhaps the last he ever wrote, in the archives for preservation.

Dallas Herald,
July 24, 1861

A train of 20 wagons, with fifteen or twenty families from California, passed through town on Monday bound for this and adjoining counties. They started on the 19^th of March, and have traveled every day, having found grass and water very scarce over a great portion of the route. They seem to be very desirable immigrants–men of energy and means, and well pleased with the country, which they think far preferable to California. Among the families we heard the names of Lowrie, Noble, Brown, and Carson–two of the brothers of the celebrated Kit Carson being in the company. In one family there were eleven children. All the company were in good health and spirits, and true Southern men. They report having met several companies of Unionists, bound for California, and abusing Texas. These disaffected persons, they fear, are making a great pecuniary sacrifice for their principles. After a very severe and laborious journey they will arrive strangers in a country where it is far more difficult than in Texas to procure the necessaries of life. Suffering must consequently be the consequence. No Indians were seen on the route, although the company buried several Americans who had been recently killed by them. A large number of immigrants are expected to follow during the season.–S. A. Herald.

Dallas Herald,
July 24, 1861

They have a “Lariat Company,” down in Calhoun county, whose only weapons are to be a six-shooter and a lariat.

The members are all young men, expert horsemen, skilled in the use of a six-shooter while their horses are at a gallop, and able to throw a rope around any of the Northern invaders and carry him off a helpless prisoner.

Civil War Era Photographic Portraiture No. 9

Joseph Ford enlisted as a private in Company G, 13th Kansas Infantry, on September 6, 1862. The 13th Kansas was organized on September 10, 1862, at Atchison, Kansas, and fought at the 1862 battles of Newtonia and Prairie Grove; the unit also preformed provost and garrison duties in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and the Cherokee Nation.

Ford was promoted to corporal on July 15, 1864, and was mustered out with his regiment on June 26, 1865, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Carte-de-Visite by White’s Photographic Rooms, Little Rock, Ark.

The Trans-Mississippi Theater Photo Archive image and information.

July 24th.–I rode out before breakfast in company with Mr. Monson across the Long Bridge over to Arlington House. General M’Dowell was seated at a table under a tree in front of his tent, and got out his plans and maps to explain the scheme of battle.

Cast down from his high estate, placed as a subordinate to his junior, covered with obloquy and abuse, the American General displayed a calm self-possession and perfect amiability which could only proceed from a philosophic temperament and a consciousness that he would outlive the calumnies of his countrymen. He accused nobody; but it was not difficult to perceive he had been sacrificed to the vanity, self-seeking, and disobedience of some of his officers, and to radical vices in the composition of his army.

When M’Dowell found he could not turn the enemy’s right as he intended, because the country by the Occoquan was unfit for the movements of artillery, or even infantry, he reconnoitred the ground towards their left, and formed the project of turning it by a movement which would bring the weight of his columns on their extreme left, and at the same time overlap it, whilst a strong demonstration was made on the ford at Bull’s Run, where General Tyler brought on the serious skirmish of the 18th. In order to carry out this plan, he had to debouch his columns from a narrow point at Centreville, and march them round by various roads to points on the upper part of the Run, where it was fordable in all directions, intending to turn the enemy’s batteries on the lower roads and bridges. But although he started them at an early hour, the troops moved so slowly the Confederates became aware of their design, and were enabled to concentrate considerable masses of troops on their left.

The Federals were not only slow, but disorderly. The regiments in advance stopped at streams to drink and fill their canteens, delaying the regiments in the rear. They wasted their provisions, so that many of them were without food at noon, when they were exhausted by the heat of the sun and by the stifling vapours of their own dense columns. When they at last came into action some divisions were not in their places, so that the line of battle was broken; and those which were in their proper position were exposed, without support, to the enemy’s fire. A delusion of masked batteries pressed on their brain. To this was soon added a hallucination about cavalry, which might have been cured had the Federals possessed a few steady squadrons to manÅ“uvre on their flanks and in the intervals of their line.

Nevertheless, they advanced and encountered the enemy’s fire with some spirit; but the Confederates were enabled to move up fresh battalions, and to a certain extent to establish an equality between the numbers of their own troops and the assailants, whilst they had the advantages of better cover and ground. An apparition of a disorderly crowd of horsemen in front of the much-boasting Fire Zouaves of New York threw them into confusion and flight, and a battery which they ought to have protected was taken. Another battery was captured by the mistake of an officer, who allowed a Confederate regiment to approach the guns, thinking they were Federal troops, till their first volley destroyed both horses and gunners. At the critical moment, General Johnston, who had escaped from the feeble observation and untenacious grip of General Patterson and his time-expired volunteers, and had been hurrying down his troops from Winchester by train, threw his fresh battalions on the flank and rear of the Federal right. When the General ordered a retreat, rendered necessary by the failure of the attack –disorder spread, which increased–the retreat became a flight which degenerated–if a flight can degenerate– into a panic, the moment the Confederates pressed them with a few cavalry and horse artillery. The efforts of the Generals to restore order and confidence were futile. Fortunately a weak reserve was posted at Centreville, and these were formed in line on the slope of the hill, whilst M’Dowell and his officers exerted themselves with indifferent success to arrest the mass of the army, and make them draw up behind the reserve, telling the men a bold front was their sole chance of safety. At midnight it became evident the morale of the army was destroyed, and nothing was left but a speedy retrograde movement, with the few regiments and guns which were in a condition approaching to efficiency, upon the defensive works of Washington.

Notwithstanding the reverse of fortune, M’Dowell did not appear willing to admit his estimate of the Southern troops was erroneous, or to say “Change armies, and I’ll fight the battle over again.” He still held Mississippians, Alabamians, Louisianians, very cheap, and did not see, or would not confess, the full extent of the calamity which had fallen so heavily on him personally. The fact of the evening’s inactivity was conclusive in his mind that they had a dearly bought success, and he looked forward, though in a subordinate capacity, to a speedy and glorious revenge.

July, Tuesday 24th, 1861.

At the Battle-ground near Bull Bun.

Dear Sisters:

We have had so many small marches and large fights lately that I have had no time to write, and because we left everything but blankets and provisions when we set out to meet the enemy last week–paper among the rest–I borrow this, and am fortunate in doing so. Last Tuesday, the 18th, we, the 7th regiment, hurried up to the aid of the 1st Virginia and some other regiments who were defending Blackford’s Ford, on Bull’s Creek. We went in under a heavy fire of musketry, but we were in some measure protected by trees and the overshooting of the enemy. Colonel Hays considered the fire there very heavy. On Sunday the enemy attacked the whole line guarded by our troops, but at this point, Stony Bridge, the main battle was fought. Our regiment was entrenched where the first battle was fought that morning at the Ford, but gave up the situation to some others, and we were held as a reserve. We were kept marching around, with an occasional bombshot falling about us and taking off a few of our regiment, for I suppose about five hours; then we came here too fast by a long deal for comfort, and arrived almost exhausted, but still, from all accounts, our approach decided the affair, and we were not in the fire of the enemy more than ten minutes or a quarter of an hour before they retired. I cannot give particulars; you will get them from the papers, and I wish you would send brother and sister an account of same. [continue reading…]

–The Richmond (Va.) Whig of today contains the following:–” The Devoted Band.”–The shortest path to peace is that which carries havoc and desolation to our invaders. It is believed that there are five or ten thousand men in the South ready and willing to share the fate of Curtius and devote themselves to the salvation of their country. It is proposed that all who are willing to make this sacrifice, shall arm themselves with a sword, two five shooters, and a carbine each, and meet on horseback at some place to be designated, convenient for the great work in hand. Fire and sword must be carried to the houses of those who are visiting those blessings upon their neighbors. Philadelphia, and even New York, is not beyond the reach of a long and brave arm. The moral people of these cities cannot be better taught the virtues of invasion than by the blazing light of their own dwellings.

None need apply for admission to “the Devoted Band ” but those who are prepared to take their life in their hand, and who would indulge not the least expectation of ever returning. They dedicate their lives to the destruction of their enemies!

A. S. B. D. B., Richmond.

All southern papers are requested to give this notice a few insertions.

–The Seventh Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, commanded by Colonel E. B. Harvey, arrived at Washington, D. C. The Regiment numbers 1,046 young and intelligent members.–Philadelphia Press, July 25.

–An expedition of 300 men under Lieut. Crosby, U. S. A., left Fortress Monroe to reconnoitre in Back River, Va., where it burned nine sloops and schooners, and made prize one schooner laden with bacon and corn.–N. Y. Times, July 27.

–This day the loyal citizens of Baltimore, Md., presented an American flag to the Massachusetts Eighth Regiment. The flag, which is of the richest banner silk, was presented in an eloquent and apropriate speech by Perley Lovejoy, Esq., which was responded to by Colonel Hinks, who alluded to the many kind friends the regiment had made in the city of Baltimore.–Baltimore American, July 25.

–Heavy offers of men were made to the Government by telegraph from all parts of the North. From Illinois, 17, and from Indiana, 10 regiments were offered. By noon of this day 80,000 men had been accepted.–An order was issued by General Mansfield directing all straggling soldiers to join their respective regiments without delay, and warning that all stragglers found in the streets six hours after the promulgation of the order, would be deemed guilty of disobedience of orders, and would be arrested. –N. Y. Herald, July 25.

–The Third Regiment of Vermont Volunteers, commanded by Colonel W. N. Smith, left St. Johnsbury, Vt., for the seat of war.–N. Y. Commercial, July 25.

–John Bradley, a young man studying for the ministry, son of a wealthy citizen, and Columbus Bradley were arrested this evening, at Alexandria, Va., by the Provost Marshal, as spies taking information to Manassas.–Louisville Journal, July 26.

–First Lieutenant Luigi Vizia, an Italian officer of the engineer department who has been many years in the military service, and who served with credit in the glorious campaign of Italian liberation of Italy, arrived at New York, to offer his services to the American Government. On his way to America he fell in with an agent of the rebel Government who attempted to persuade him to take service under that Government, and offered to pay his passage.– N. Y. Evening Post, July 26.

–The ladies of Harper’s Ferry, Va., presented a Union flag to the Second Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers to-day, with appropriate ceremonies.–Boston Advertiser, July 31.

——-

Late addition to Volume 3:

July 24.–The Presbytery of South Alabama met at Selma, Alabama, and severed its ecclesiastical connection with the General Assembly of the United States, and recommended a meeting of a Confederate States Assembly at Memphis, Tennessee, on the 4th of December next. Though not in favor of a preliminary convention, yet the Presbytery, in view that such might be the general wish, appointed delegates to one and recommend Atlanta as that place, and the 15th August as the time for holding it.–N. Y. Evening Post, August 12.

(excerpts)

23rd. “We have been in the greatest  I am curious to know what the effect will be at the North—whether they will be panic stricken or exasperated to frenzy at such a defeat. Poor old Scott! If he had only died after the Mexican War, how much better it would have been for his military fame. They say that the trunks of some of the men were actually directed to Richmond! In the next fight I suppose of course the President will take the field. He got down too late this time—just as they had begun to retreat. . . .

“The fact is the fight took place sooner than he had expected, and he had made no preparations for engaging in it. Don’t however repeat anything I may say to you on such subjects.”

Tuesday Morning, July 23, ‘61.

God be praised for that telegram! What a day was yesterday to us; and what a day must it have been to you, my dear Eliza! The terrible news, the conflicting reports, the almost unendurable suspense we were in, the distance from you at such a time! Altogether it was a time to be remembered! We are thankful indeed, unspeakably so, to hear this morning by your nice letter, Georgy, of Joe’s quiet sleep upon the sofa at your side! How mercifully are we dealt with! when we think of the families in our land who are this day in sorrow as the result of this terrible battle. . . . There is a tremendous sensation throughout the city in consequence of this news–crowds are rushing continually to the news offices, and all we have seen are wearing looks of sadness and disappointment, following as this does so immediately upon the accounts of the easy manner in which Fairfax, Centreville and Bull’s Run were captured, and the flying of the enemy before our soldiers.

Washington, July 22, 1861.

My dear Cousin Margaret: This is the third attempt I have made to finish a letter to you. Joe is safe and quietly sleeping on the sofa by us. You know all about this total defeat–our army is entirely broken up, all the army stores, three of the batteries, ammunition, baggage, everything, in the hands of the enemy–Centreville retaken by them, Fairfax C. H. retaken, and our troops scattered in and about Washington. Everything was in our hands and success seemed certain at Bull Run, when from some cause or other a panic was created, our men fell back, the rebels seized the moment for a bold rush and we were entirely routed. Joe says there never was a more complete defeat. All last night the soldiers were arriving in all sorts of conveyances, and on horses cut from ambulances and baggage wagons. An officer from Bull Run told us he saw four soldiers on one horse; and so they came flying back to Washington in all directions. Colonel Miles’ division, in which Joe’s regiment was, was held as a reserve at Blackburn’s Ford on the left and only came into active duty when the rout began–they had a sharp engagement with 5000 in a “gully” lost only two men from the Brigade and none from the 16th and retired in order, first to Centerville, where orders met them to fall back on Fairfax C. H. Here they slept half an hour last night, when they were again ordered to retreat to Washington, which order they have followed as far as Alexandria, and expect now to be stationed there some little time. The dead and wounded were left in the hands of the enemy, and one of the officers told me it would be unnecessary to ask for the sick, for the rebels were killing them: he knew it had been done in some cases, and undoubtedly would be in all. Colonel Davies and two of the officers came up from their camp at Alexandria with Joe, and all four of them were wretched-looking men, dirty, hungry and utterly tired out. Joe had not had his high boots off since he left Alexandria on the 16th. The day that McDowell’s division marched south, Eliza and I were out at the camp to see them pass, and our own regiment march. Eleven thousand fine-looking fellows filed past us as we stood at the cross-roads,–and disappeared down the quiet country lane. What a horrid coming back it has been! “We shall not see this place very soon again,” they said as they packed up their things at Alexandria, and marched off, singing as they went. And in spite of all this, and in full knowledge of the great outnumbering of our men on the other side, General Scott sat quietly in St. John’s Church that battle-Sunday through a tremendously heavy sermon, shook hands with me at the church door, and told us all that “we should have good news in the morning and that we were sure to beat the enemy.” Colonel Davies has seen him this morning too, and he is quite cheerful and composed. The Zouaves, one Massachusetts regiment, and the 69th and 71st New York have been the greatest sufferers–very few of the Zouaves are left. The fighting was all from behind masked batteries on the enemy’s side. Lieutenant Bradford told me that he had to ride down the lines and give the order to retreat. Our men were all lying on their faces, and the air filled with shot and shell and not a rebel’s head to be seen. When Colonel Davies was asked what lost the day, he said “green leaves and fine officering on the enemy’s side.” In open field, they all say they should have beaten the rebels entirely. . . . Now he and Joe are off on business in a hard rain, and go to Alexandria at two, where the regiment is established in the old camp–at Cameron Run. Yesterday and last night were hard to bear, but what with General Scott’s assurances, General Ripley’s, Mr. Dixon’s and Judge Davies’ comforting little visits, we got along, jumping up every few moments through the night whenever a horse dashed by the house or an ambulance rumbled along. Now we shall be as much as possible at the camp in Alexandria,–for how long I can’t say. . . . We have had an encounter with Miss Dix–that is rather the way to express it. Splendid as her career has been, she would succeed better with more graciousness of manner. However, we brought her to terms, and shall get along better.

The sick and wounded are doing well. Georgy and I have been to all the hospitals and find them very well supplied, for boxes of garments and stores of all kinds have poured in ever since the battle. It has been the one cheering thing of the times. . . . We hear from the surgeons we have met here that very many of the wounded who were left behind had their wounds carefully dressed before the rout began, and they are constantly being brought into the city in ambulances, having reached the camps on the other side by slow stages.

– – – – – – – – –

In this same battle of Bull Run the 2d Conn. was in the thick of the fight, and its surgeon, Dr. Bacon (your Uncle Frank), found himself separated from the troops and in the midst of a group of southern wounded, for whom he cared under the impression that we were victorious and he within our own lines. He ordered them to surrender their arms, threw most of these into a pond near by, and saved a pistol and two dangerous knives as trophies. They are those that afterwards hung on the banisters of his house in New Haven. One of the knives was more than a foot long and home-made from a horse shoer’s file, with rough home-made scabbard; the other, an ugly dirk, was made in England and engraved there “Arkansas toothpick.” The revolver belonged to the wounded commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Gardner, leading a Georgia regiment. He insisted upon giving his watch to Dr. B. as a return for the good care received.–(It was afterwards returned to him.)–When the arms were in the horse pond and the rebels cared for, the Doctor made the startling discovery that he was alone–our army in retreat, and he virtually a prisoner to the rebels. He left hastily, before the truth dawned upon Colonel Gardner’s mind!

New York, July 23.

Abby is in the front parlor reading the papers. It is quite useless to say anything about going into the country just now. If we are away from the daily papers, or if they are delayed an hour the girls get into a perfect fever; besides, Abby, you know, has decided never to go to the country again! Because she took a sea bath at Mary’s and felt weak after it, she thinks the country doesn’t agree with her! . . . Aunt Emily is going up to Lenox the last of next week, I believe. I hope so, for Uncle E. needs change; he looks miserably, has a constant cough, and seems quite run down; though when Aunt E. says, “You don’t feel very bright to-day, do you, dear?” he is quite indignant and makes a feeble attempt to sing “the Cock and the Hen,” or to whistle “Dixie.”

CAMP CHASE, July 23, 1861.

DEAR UNCLE:–We are in the midst of the excitement produced by the disastrous panic near Washington. We expect it will occasion a very early movement of our regiment. We shall, perhaps, be ordered to the Kanawha line. We certainly shall, unless the recent defeat shall change the plan of the campaign. Colonel DePuy’s regiment is on that line, so that the Fremont companies are likely to be in the same body with us. Their association will be pleasant enough, but there are two or three regiments with them in which I have very little confidence; viz., the Kentucky regiments “falsely so called.” We are yet raw troops, but I think we shall soon grow to it.

The Washington affair is greatly to be regretted; unless speedily repaired, it will lengthen the war materially. The panic of the troops does not strike me as remarkable. You recollect the French army in the neighborhood of the Austrians were seized with a panic, followed by a flight of many miles, caused merely by a runaway mule and cart and “nobody hurt.” The same soldiers won the battle of Solferino a few days ago [later]. But I do think the commanding officers ought not to have led fresh levies against an enemy entrenched on his own ground. Gradual advances, fortifying as he went, strikes me as a more prudent policy. But it is easy to find fault. The lesson will have its uses. It will test the stuff our people are made of. If we are a solid people, as I believe we are, this reverse will stiffen their backs. They will be willing to make greater efforts and sacrifices.

We worked late last night getting our accoutrements ready. In the hurry of preparations to depart, I may not be able to write you before I go. Good-bye.

Sincerely,

R. B. HAYES.

S. BIRCHARD.

July 23d. I awoke after a long, refreshing sleep, very stiff, and feet badly blistered, but, after a cold bath at the hydrant, and a cup of coffee, felt quite myself again.

Many men have returned but not enough to complete the organization, so we were not required to perform any duty. The first thing I did was to clean my musket, and belts, then my clothes, and by noon time had everything in good order; then Dodd and I dressed up in our best clothes, and walked to the city, first going to the telegraph office, where we had to wait a long time for our turn, to notify our families at home that we were not killed, wounded, or missing; this done, we spent the day in town, looking up our men, and getting all the news we could of the situation, now considered extremely critical. The forts have been manned, and all the available troops placed in position to defend the capitol.

Tuesday.–Witnessed for the first time a military funeral. As that march came wailing up, they say Mrs. Bartow fainted. The empty saddle and the led war-horse –we saw and heard it all, and now it seems we are never out of the sound of the Dead March in Saul. It comes and it comes, until I feel inclined to close my ears and scream.

Yesterday, Mrs. Singleton and ourselves sat on a bedside and mingled our tears for those noble spirits–John Darby, Theodore Barker, and James Lowndes. To-day we find we wasted our grief; they are not so much as wounded. I dare say all the rest is true about them–in the face of the enemy, with flags in their hands, leading their men. “But Dr. Darby is a surgeon.” He is as likely to forget that as I am. He is grandson of Colonel Thomson of the Revolution, called, by way of pet name, by his soldiers, “Old Danger.” Thank Heaven they are all quite alive. And we will not cry next time until officially notified.

July 23. 6 A. M.–This extra ¹ was handed me on our parade ground last evening about 6 P. M. by my brother-in-law, Dr. Joe Webb, who had just galloped out from the city on my sorrel. We had heard the first rumor of a great defeat, but this gave us the details. A routed army, heavy loss, demoralization, on our side; a great victory, confidence, and enthusiasm, on the other, were the natural results to be expected. Washington in danger, its capture probable, if the enemy had genius. These were the ideas I was filled with.

But so far as we were concerned all was readiness and energy. Colonel Matthews and myself superintended the opening and distribution of cartridge-boxes, etc., etc., until late at night that our regiment might be ready to march at a moment’s warning. Slept badly. Meditated on the great disaster. On Lucy probably hastening to Cincinnati to comfort and be with her mother. I dreamed I was in Washington, Union men leaving in haste, the enemy advancing to take the city, its capture hourly expected. My own determination and feelings when awake were all as I would wish. A sense of duty excited to a warmer and more resolute pitch.

This morning I rose at the first tap of reveille and went out on the parade-ground. Soon came the morning papers correcting and modifying the first exaggerated reports. There was a great panic, but if the morning report is reliable, the loss is not very heavy; the army is again in position. The lesson is a severe one. It may be a useful one. Raw troops should not be sent to attack an enemy entrenched on its own ground unless under most peculiar circumstances. Gradual approach with fortifications as they proceeded would have won the day.

Last evening Adjutant-General Buckingham took tea with Colonel Scammon. My mind was full of the great disaster. They talked of schoolboy times at West Point; gave the bill of fare of different days–beef on Sunday, fish on etc., etc.– anecdotes of Billy Cozzens, the cook or steward, never once alluding to the events just announced of which we were all full.

July 12, Lucy and Birch and Webb came up to Columbus. They spent a few days in camp, she remaining over night but once. They will probably remain until we leave here. Mrs. Matthews and Willie left today (23rd). With her daughter Jennie, they have spent two or three days in camp.

Continuing my narrative.–In the place of Colonel Rosecrans, promoted to brigadier-general, Colonel Scammon is appointed to command our regiment. He is a gentleman of military education and experience. Amiable and friendly with us–an intelligent, agreeable gentleman; but not well fitted for volunteer command; and I fear somewhat deficient in health and vigor of nerve. We shall find him an entertaining head of our mess of field officers.–After some ups and downs we have succeeded in getting for our surgeon my brother-in-law, Dr. Joseph T. Webb. Our field officers’ mess consists of Colonel Scammon, LieutenantColonel Matthews, Dr. Webb, and myself.

_______

¹ Pasted in the Diary is the report of the disaster at Manassas Junction and the retreat of the Union army, clipped from the Ohio State Journal extra.

TUESDAY 23

Yesterday was a rainy day and the poor Soldiers were coming in all day wet and cold. We had our house full of members of our Lyons Co. to tea, and made them as comfortable as we could. Today I have taken down to the camp for them two pairs of pantaloons, bot tobacco for the Zuaves and helped them “out” all I could. The City is full of returning soldiers, many in a bad condition, wounded & tired out.

______

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.

JULY 23d.—Jacques is back and as busy as a bee; and, in truth, there is work enough for all.