Thursday, 26th.—We arrived at Selma some time after dark; marched to the steamboat that was in readiness for us, and got aboard. The weather was bitterly cold, but there being hospital stores and wood aboard, we soon had fires, but were ordered to put them out, which we did, but some of us soon had them burning again. We had begun to feel somewhat independent. At Montgomery we were marched out into a place that had been muddy and tramped, and had frozen solid in that condition, and told we would remain there until morning, and not a stick of wood any where; but said some would be hauled soon as could. After a while about a dozen drays came, with about as much on each one as four men could carry. Not a fifth of the men got a stick of it. We decided to have some wood or tear down a house. Soon we found an engine with some in the tender. When one of the boys began throwing it out, some fellow ordered him to quit; said he would have him arrested if he did not; that he was compelled to have that wood to heat up his engine in the morning. We told him we thought we needed heating up just then worse than his old engine would in the morning, and so we took the wood, and made us a fire, and did fairly well until day-light.

(Note: picture is of an unidentified Confederate soldier.)

January 25th. All quiet since the last date. I am in the best of health, ready for duty at any time, and for any call. The general health of the regiment at this time is good. Company A ordered to Harper’s Ferry for provost duty under command of Lieutenant Kerr. Companies D and I to Duffield Station on the Baltimore & Ohio R. R., west of Harper’s Ferry. Their quarters are in block houses, bullet proof, about seven miles from our camp. Guard the railroad.

25th. Charge of picket. Bill Smith with me. Cold day. Very comfortable time.

January 25th.–Clear, and very cold. We lost gun-boat Drewry yesterday in an unsuccessful attempt to destroy the enemy’s pontoon bridge down the river. Fort Harrison was not taken as reported, nor is it likely to be.

The rumor of an armistice remains, nevertheless, and Mr. Blair dined with the President on Sunday, and has had frequent interviews with him. This is published in the papers, and will cause the President to be severely censured.

Congress failed to expel Mr. Foote yesterday (he is off again), not having a two-thirds vote, but censured him by a decided majority. What will it end in?

No successors yet announced to Seddon and Campbell–Secretary and Assistant Secretary of War. Perhaps they can be persuaded to remain.

After all, it appears that our fleet did not return, but remains down the river; and as the enemy’s gun-boats have been mostly sent to North Carolina, Gen. Lee may give Grant some trouble. If he destroys the bridges, the Federal troops on this side the river will be cut off from their main army.

It is said the President has signed the bill creating a commander-in-chief. [continue reading…]

Wednesday, 25th–It has cleared off now and is quite cool. It does not take long in this sandy region for the roads to dry off, and in three or four days they will be in good condition. We expect to leave here soon. The men are becoming very restless, being at one place so long. General Sherman and General Howard left for the front today.

Wednesday, 25th.—Got about twelve miles by day-light; don’t run at all hardly. (Thus abruptly ended my memorandum.) Some of us had decided that to fight and kill men under the present conditions would simply be murder, and that we would have no further part in it, and determined to go home, and this is why my memorandum ended abruptly. So the remainder was written from memory later.

(Note: picture is of an unidentified Confederate soldier.)

24th. Tuesday. In camp. Played chess with A. B. Read “Two Gentlemen.”

January 24th.–Clear and cool. It is now said Mr. Seddon’s resignation has not yet been accepted, and that his friends are urging the President to persuade him to remain. Another rumor says ex-Gov. Letcher is to be his successor, and that Mr. Benjamin has sent in his resignation. Nothing seems to be definitely settled. I wrote the President yesterday that, in my opinion, there was no ground for hope unless communication with the enemy’s country were checked, and an entire change in the conscription business speedily ordered. I was sincere, and wrote plain truths, however they might be relished. It is my birth-right.

It is said (I doubt it) that Mr. Blair left the city early yesterday.

To add to the confusion and despair of the country, the Secretary of the Treasury is experimenting on the currency, ceasing to issue Treasury notes, with unsettled claims demanding liquidation to the amount of hundreds of millions. Even the clerks, almost in a starving condition, it is said will not be paid at the end of the month; and the troops have not been paid for many months; but they are fed and clothed. Mr. Trenholm will fail to raise our credit in this way; and he may be instrumental in precipitating a crash of the government itself. No doubt large amounts of gold have been shipped every month to Europe from Wilmington; and the government may be now selling the money intended to go out from that port. But it will be only a drop to the ocean.

The Northern papers say Mr. Blair is authorized to offer an amnesty, including all persons, with the “Union as it was, the Constitution as it is” (my old motto on the “Southern Monitor,” in 1857); but gradual emancipation. No doubt some of the people here would be glad to accept this; but the President will fight more, and desperately yet, still hoping for foreign assistance.

What I fear is starvation; and I sincerely wish my family were on the old farm on the Eastern Shore of Virginia until the next campaign is over.

It is believed Gen. Grant meditates an early movement on our left–north side of the river; and many believe we are in no condition to resist him. Still, we have faith in Lee, and the President remains here. If he and the principal members of the government were captured by a sudden surprise, no doubt there would be a clamor in the North for their trial and execution!

Guns have been heard to-day, and there are rumors of fighting below; that Longstreet has marched to this side of the river; that one of our gun-boats has been sunk; that Fort Harrison has been retaken; and, finally, that an armistice of ninety days has been agreed to by both governments.

Tuesday, 24th–It is still raining, which makes the fifth day of steady rain, and at times it comes down in torrents. We are very fortunate in having shacks set up on the top of the old fort where we are located, for if we were camping down on the level ground, we could not possibly keep dry. Our duty is very light here, but we are getting awfully tired of the place, and hope that as we have a new landing for the provisions, we may be able to get away in a few days and move on to the front at Garden Corners, South Carolina.

Tuesday, 24th.—Left Meridian at 1 P. M.; at Tombigbee River, 7 P. M. Went on steamboat four miles to Demopolis. Took the train for Selma.

(Note: picture is of an unidentified Confederate soldier.)

23rd. Monday. Dan left us. He has been a brave and faithful soldier. It seems hard to lose him. He will make a splendid officer. Still rain and hail fall.

January 23d.–Foggy, and raining. F. P. Blair is here again. If enemies are permitted to exist in the political edifice, there is danger of a crash. This weather, bad news, etc. etc. predispose both the people and the army for peace–while the papers are filled with accounts of the leniency of Sherman at Savannah, and his forbearance to interfere with the slaves. The enemy cannot take care of the negroes–and to feed them in idleness would produce a famine North and South. Emancipation now is physically impossible. Where is the surplus food to come from to feed 4,000,000 idle non-producers?

It is said by the press that Mr. Seddon resigned because the Virginia Congressmen expressed in some way a want of confidence in the cabinet. But Mr. Hunter was in the Secretary’s office early this morning, and may prevail on him to withdraw his resignation again, or to hold on–until all is accomplished.

Gen. Breckinridge, it is said, requires the removal of Northrop, before his acceptance. Gen. Bragg is also named.

Congress, in creating the office of a commander-in-chief, also aimed a blow at Bragg’s staff; and this may decide the President to appoint him Secretary of War. [continue reading…]

Monday, 23d–It is still raining, and our men have made a new landing within six miles of Pocotaligo. It is at one of the inlets which has a channel deep enough for small steamboats to come up. This will shorten the haul of our provisions about twenty miles—no small item in this land of sandy bottoms.

Jan. 21—Rain and sleet. Brigade goes on picket.

Jan. 22—In camp. Rain.

Jan. 23—Hear from wife. In trouble. God help her! Terrible cannonade on our lines till nine at night.

Saturday, ride to McRae’s Brigade to see Coin, Jim and A. Davis.

Preach on Sunday a. m. and pray with prisoners in p. m.

22nd. Sunday. Storm continues. Some snow on the ground. Worked on shelters for horses out of pine brush. Bosworth and Robinson discharged. Ordered to write of East Tenn. campaign, one chapter in the history of the 2nd Ohio.

January 22d.–Another day of sleet and gloom. The pavements are almost impassable from the enamel of ice; large icicles hang from the houses, and the trees are bent down with the weight of frost.

The mails have failed, and there is no telegraphic intelligence, the wires being down probably. It rained very fast all day yesterday, and I apprehend the railroad bridges have been destroyed in many places.

The young men (able-bodied) near the Secretary of War and the Assistant Secretary, at the War Department, say, this morning, that both have resigned.

It is said the Kentucky Congressmen oppose the acceptance of the portfolio of war by Gen. Breckinridge.

Whoever accepts it must reform the conscription business and the passport business, else the cause will speedily be lost. Most of our calamities may be traced to these two sources.

Sunday, 22d–A detail from our regiment was sent out along the road today to help the loaded wagons across the deep mud-holes, as they come through from Beaufort. It is reported that the Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps have crossed into South Carolina and are floundering in the mud bottoms of the Savannah river.

Sunday, 22d.—Left Tupelo at day-light; ran very slowly. Stalled, and we had to walk half-mile.

(Note: picture is of an unidentified Confederate soldier.)

21st.—We hear nothing cheering except in the proceedings of Congress and the Virginia Legislature, particularly the latter. Both bodies look to stern resistance to Federal authority. The city and country are full of rumours and evil surmising; and while we do not believe one word of the croaking, it makes us feel restless and unhappy.

Steamer “Cosmopolitan,” bound to Beaufort from
Savannah, Ga.,
January 21, 1864. ¹

I was at Beaufort some three days when I received a detail on a “military commission” to sit at headquarters, 4th Division of our corps at Savannah. Reported at Savannah on the 17th and found my commission had finished its business and adjourned, all of which satisfied me. Have been ever since trying to get back to the regiment, but all of the vessels which run on this line have been in use as lighters, transfering the 19th Corps (which now occupies Savannah) from the large steamers which have to stop at the bar up the river. This 19th Corps is a portion of Sheridan’s command and helped him win those glorious victories in the valley. They are a fine soldierly-looking body of men, but have already had some difficulty with our troops. As I left the city I saw the wind up of a snug little fight between a portion of the 20th and 19th Corps. Noticed about 40 bloody faces. All this kind of work grows out of corps pride. Fine thing, isn’t it, We left the wharf at 2 p.m. yesterday, grounded about 5 p.m., and had to wait for high tide, which came at midnight; then a heavy rain and fog set in and we have made little progress since. Are now, 11 a.m., at anchor, supposed to be near the mouth of Scull Creek waiting for the fog to clear up. I am terribly bored at being away from the regiment so long. I feel lost, out of place and blue. What glorious news from Fort Fisher, and what a horrid story that is about 13 out of the 15 prisoners the Rebels had of our regiment, dying of starvation. One of them, W. G. Dunblazier, was of my company, and a better boy or braver soldier never shouldered a musket. He was captured on the skirmish line at Dallas.

_______

¹ This piece is dated January 1864 and sequenced in 1864 in the book.   However, the events discussed and the location place it in 1865, which is where it is inserted here.

21st. Saturday. Rainy and raw. Scouting party went out to Cedar Creek, through the Gap and around the mountain and came back by Fawcett’s Gap. Awful day. A hunt for Imboden’s men. No one seen.

January 21st.–A dark, cold, sleety day, with rain. Troopers and scouts from the army have icicles hanging from their hats and caps, and their clothes covered with frost, and dripping.

The Examiner this morning says very positively that Mr. Secretary Seddon has resigned. Not a word about Messrs. Benjamin and Mallory–yet. The recent action of Congress is certainly a vote of censure, with great unanimity.

It is said Congress, in secret session, has decreed the purchase of all the cotton and tobacco! The stable locked after the horse is gone! If it had been done in 1861––

Mr. Secretary Trenholm is making spasmodic efforts to mend the currency–selling cotton and tobacco to foreign (Yankee) agents for gold and sterling bills, and buying Treasury notes at the market depreciation. For a moment he has reduced the price of gold from $80 to $50 for $1; but the flood will soon overwhelm all opposition, sweeping every obstruction away. [continue reading…]

Saturday, 21st–It is still raining. The teams are going back and forth day and night, hauling provisions. The roads are so bad now at places that the teams get stuck in the mud.

January 20th. Severe cold weather since the last date. Deep snow and plenty. The inhabitants have always claimed the Yankees brought the cold weather. Such severe winters do not come to Virginia but once in many years. Our regular routine of duty is, and must be, kept up in spite of the severe weather. It is two hours on duty and four off. The report of a gun calls up the other two reliefs. The corporal must investigate and find out the cause of the alarm. If more than one gun is fired, the camp guard reports firing on the picket line. The Colonel is notified. He orders the sounding of the long roll, calling out the regiment. Everything is kept ready for a sudden call in the night. We turn out very lively, soon in line.