October 26th. All quiet up to early this morning, before daylight, when the long roll sounded out calling us out under arms. It makes much excitement in the dark. We were quickly in line and on the Winchester Pike. In line waiting for orders. After waiting some time, later on, we learned the cause. General Duffield, a cavalry commander, left Winchester last night for Martinsburg, with a small escort. A few miles out on the Pike the General and his escort were captured by Mosby. The General was riding in an ambulance to get sleep and rest. That’s the report as it came to us. That dashing business was carried out on both sides. After a time we returned to our camp. General Duffield is no doubt on his way to Richmond. All is quiet tonight.

Wednesday, 26th.—Heavy cannonading in direction of Decatur. At Summerville at 4 P. M.

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

Wednesday, 26th–The weather is quite pleasant. Nothing of importance. Still in camp. Our work, outside of regular picket duty, is very light here.

26th. Wednesday. In camp. Regt. not picket. Cloudy. Paymaster came.

At Little River again, October 26, 1864.

Got back on the 25th, and have been laying quiet. Our foragers have been skirmishing a good deal with the enemies’ scouts, but few casualties however.

October 26th.–Clear and frosty. Quiet below.

Gen. W. M. Gardner (in Gen. Winder’s place here) has just got from Judge Campbell passports for his cousin, Mary E. Gardner, and for his brother-in-law, F. M. White, to go to Memphis, Tenn., where they mean to reside.

Mr. Benjamin publishes a copy of a dispatch to Mr. Mason, in London, for publication there, showing that if the United States continue the war, she will be unable to pay her debts abroad, and therefore foreigners ought not to lend her any more money, or they may be ruined. This from a Secretary of State! It may be an electioneering card in the United States, and it may reconcile some of our members of Congress to the incumbency of Mr. B. in a sinecure position.

A friend of Mr. Seddon, near Vicksburg, writes for permission to sell thirty bales of cotton–$20,000 worth–to the enemy. He says Mr. Seddon’s estate, on the Sunflower, has not been destroyed by the enemy. That’s fortunate, for other places have been utterly ruined.

Investigations going on in the courts show that during Gen. Winder’s “Reign of Terror,” passports sold for $2000. Some outside party negotiated the business and procured the passport.

Gen. Early has issued an address to his army, reproaching it for having victory wrested out of its hands by a criminal indulgence in the plunder found in the camps captured from the enemy. He hopes they will retrieve everything in the next battle.

Governor Smith’s exemptions of magistrates, deputy sheriffs, clerks, and constables, to-day, 56.

Tuesday, 25th–Still lying in camp. The supply train of the Fifteenth Army Corps returned with rations late this evening, but the supply train of the Seventeenth Corps has not yet come in. It is reported that the army of the Tennessee is going on a march of four hundred miles. The route is supposed to be down through the States of Alabama and Mississippi and then up through to Memphis, Tennessee.^[1] We are to take rations for thirty days and clothing for sixty days. The armies of the Ohio and of the Cumberland, it is said, are to garrison Atlanta^[2] and also to hold the railroad between Atlanta and Nashville. The Twenty-third Army Corps moved out today to Cedar Bluffs.

[1] This was the first hint at “marching through Georgia,” but the camp rumor had it Alabama and Mississippi.—Ed.
[2] We learned later that it was Chattanooga instead of Atlanta, and that the two armies were to be united under the command of General Thomas.—A. G. D.

25th. Tuesday. Teams came up. Seems good. Hurrying up Q. M. papers. Letter from Ella Clark.

Nine miles northwest of Gadsden, Ala.,
October 25, 1864.

Found the Rebels about noon to-day in position behind a rail work, running across from Lookout Mountain to Coosa river. It was only Wheeler’s cavalry, and we blew them out easily. We formed to charge them, but they wouldn’t wait. We followed until we were satisfied there was no infantry behind them, and then settled for the night, and sent out foragers. There was some miserable artillery firing by both sides. Not a dozen men were hurt; only one in our brigade, 100th Indiana.

October 25th.–Bright and beautiful morning.

All quiet below. Mr. McRae has been permitted by Gen. Butler to return again to the city to await his exchange, pledged not to bear arms, etc. Many more of the government employees, forced into the trenches, would be happy to be in the same predicament. A great many are deserting under a deliberate conviction that their rights have been despotically invaded by the government; and that this government is, and is likely to be, as tyrannous as Lincoln’s. No doubt many give valuable information to the enemy.

The Superintendent of the Bureau of Conscription is at open war with the General of Reserves in Virginia, and confusion is likely to be worse confounded.

Gen. Cooper, A. and I. General (Pennsylvanian), suggests to the President the appointment of Gen. Lovell to the command of all the prisons containing Federal captives. Gen. Lovell, too, is a Northern man.

Monday, 24th.—Crossed Sand Mountain at the summit; crossed the road we travelled going to Vicksburg with the wagon trains.

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

Monday, 24th–Still lying in camp and all is quiet at the front. Large foraging parties are being sent out for food for the men and feed for the horses and mules. The valleys in this part of the country are thickly settled, but not more than half of the plantations have been cultivated this past season, as the negroes were taken south by their masters to keep them from falling into the hands of the “Yanks,” and also to help build fortifications. The plantations that have been farmed were put mostly in wheat and corn. There are some large fields of corn which come in very handy for our army at this time.

24th. Monday. Rode to several Hdqrs. with Adj. Pike. Watson and Pearson mustered out. Read papers and letter from home.

Eight miles southeast of last night’s camp,

October 24, 1864.

With five brigades of our corps started at 3.30 p.m. to look after Rebels reported. Came through a little hamlet called Blue Pond from a little lake in the neighborhood of a dirty mud color. Plenty of milk and honey.

October 24th.–Clouds and sunshine. Nothing new of importance from the army.

Gov. Smith has been writing letters to Gen. Lee, asking that Gen. Early be superseded in the Valley. Pity it had not been done! Gen. Lee replied, expressing confidence in Early; and the President (since the disaster!) coincides with Lee.

The President administers a sharp rebuke to Gen. Whiting, for irregularly corresponding with Generals Lee and Beauregard on the subject of Lieut. Taylor Wood’s naval expedition, fitting out at Wilmington.

The President and cabinet are still at work on the one hundred clerks in the departments whom they wish to displace.

I append the result of my gardening this year. The dry weather in May and June injured the crop, or the amount would have been much larger. Total valuation, at market prices, $347.

Circular.] …..Headquarters First Army Corps¹
Near Richmond, Va., October 20, 1864.

…..The attention of the lieutenant-general commanding has been directed to the large number of irresponsible parties wandering about the rear and flanks of the Federal army, who claim to be scouts of the Army of Northern Virginia. They do us no good, but by their practice of violating General Order, Numbers 60, in the robbery and maltreatment of Federal deserters, and by robbing prisoners and citizens, they bring disgrace and detriment to the service.
…..By orders from headquarters Army of Northern Virginia, all parties claiming to be scouts will be arrested who are not authorized by the cavalry commander or whose names are not sent to General Hampton from army headquarters.
…..The lieutenant-general commanding desires you to give such orders as will at once put a stop to this independent scouting. He thinks that two good scouts will be enough for your division and he wishes when you shall have selected them, to send up their names for proper authorization. Let them be specially instructed in their duties, and warned against the malpractices above spoken of. We may thus hope to give some system, order, and responsibility to the performance of the important duty of procuring information of the enemy’s movements.
……………I am, general, very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

G. M. SORREL,
Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.

(To division commanders.)

1. War of the Rebellion: Serial 089 Page 1155 OPERATIONS IN SE. VA. AND N. C. Chapter LIV.

October 23d. Our regular routine is kept up day after day. A part of the duty of a soldier and laboring man. Everything quiet in this vicinity except reports that come to us about the guerillas. Don’t think they care to come near infantry.

Sunday, 23d–The weather is getting pretty cool mornings, but we have plenty of wood to build fires in front of our shacks. All is quiet in the front. I was relieved from picket this morning. We had company inspection this evening.

23rd. Sunday. Rode to Army Hdqrs. and to fortifications. Artillery parked near Hdqrs. Read Independents. Splendid sermon by Rev. R. W. Hitchcock. “Blessed be the Lord who teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight.”

October 23, 1864.

A day of rest and washing. The cavalry was out some dozen miles southwest, and report the enemy intrenched and in force.

Sunday, October 23d.–Bright and frosty.

From the United States papers we learn that a great victory is claimed over Gen. Early, with the capture of forty-three guns!

It is also stated that a party of “Copperheads” (Democrats), who had taken refuge in Canada, have made a raid into Vermont, and robbed some of the banks of their specie.

The fact that Mr. McRae, who, with Mr. Henley (local forces), fell into the hands of the enemy a few miles below the city, was permitted to return within our own lines with a passport (without restrictions, etc.) from Gen. Butler, has not been mentioned by any of the newspapers, gives rise to many conjectures. Some say that “somebody” prohibited the publication; others, that the press has long been misrepresenting the conduct of the enemy; there being policy in keeping alive the animosities of the army and the people.

The poor clerks in the trenches are in a demoralized condition. It is announced that the Secretary of War has resolved to send them all to Camp Lee, for medical examination: those that have proved their ability to bear arms (in defense of the city) are to be removed from office, and put in the army. One-half of them will desert to the enemy, and injure the cause. About one hundred of them were appointed before the enactment of the act of Conscription, under the express guarantee of the Constitution that they should not be molested during life. If the President removes these, mostly refugees with families dependent upon their salaries, it will be a plain violation of the Constitution; and the victims cannot be relied on for their loyalty to the government. If the government wastes precious time in such small matters, while events of magnitude demand attention, the cause is fast reaching a hopeless condition. The able-bodied money-changer, speculator, and extortioner is still seen in the street; and their number is legion.

The generals in the field are sending back the poor, sickly recruits ordered out by the Medical Board: the able-bodied rich men escape by bribery and corruption; and the hearty officers–acting adjutant-generals, quartermasters, and commissaries–ride their sleek horses through the city every afternoon. This, while the cause is perishing for want of men and horses!

October 22d. Report comes to us of the death of our Brigade and Division Commander at Cedar Creek. We are all sorry that he was killed. He was one of the best officers in our corps. Colonel Thoburn, 1st West Virginia Regiment, a good friend to our regiment, a medical doctor by profession.

Saturday, 22d.—Came through Gadsden yesterday. Circular from General Hood that Yanks had evacuated Atlanta. (Well, yes, that was true, but not for fear of Rebs.)

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

Saturday, 22d–We lay in camp all day for the purpose of resting. But it appears to the rank and file of the men that Sherman must have given up trying to catch Hood, or else we would not remain so long at one place. The supply trains were all sent back to the main railroad line for provisions. I went out on picket this morning. The non-veterans of the Eleventh and Thirteenth Iowa Regiments were mustered out this morning, and left for Chattanooga, from which place they will start for home. All of the non-veteran officers from each regiment, except two or three, went out with the privates. It is fine weather for marching. No news from the Eastern army.