October 2021

Communications to be delivered to Major Generals Fremont and Hunter; a letter from Lincoln—The Letters of Samuel Ryan Curtis

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The Letters of Samuel Ryan Curtis

[copy] Benton Barracks Mo. Oct 29. 1861 A delicate but important duty is devolved on you.1 One of two Communications, one directed to Major General John C. Fremont and the other to Major General Hunter, are to be delivered to these Generals under certain Conditions which are given in a letter from the President of [...]

When will this thing cease? Death in battle does not pain me much.—Diary of Rutherford B. Hayes.

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Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes

Camp Tompkins, Tuesday morning, October 29, 1861.—A bright, cold October morning, before breakfast. This month has been upon the whole a month of fine weather. The awful storm on Mount Sewell, and a mitigated repetition of it at Camp Lookout ten days afterward, October 7, are the only storms worth noting. The first was unprecedented [...]

“We constantly hear that our children and near relatives are well—none of them have been wounded, all mercifully spared…,”—Diary of a Southern Refugee, Judith White McGuire.

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Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War by Judith White McGuire

Tuesday, 29th—A little reverse to record this morning. It is said that Colonel McDonald’s cavalry made an unfortunate retreat from Romney the other day, as the enemy approached. It may have been wise, as the enemy outnumbered us greatly. Mr. _____ and myself have just returned from a delightful walk to Pagebrook. We were talking [...]

Civil War Day-By-Day

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Civil War Day-by-Day

October 29, 1861 A Chronological History of the Civil War in America1 The great naval and military expedition, destined to operate off the Southern coast, sailed from Hampton Roads at 6 A.M.—naval under Com. Dupont and military under Gen. T. W. Sherman.The expedition was composed of the following vessels: three war steamers, six sail war-vessels, [...]

J.B. Jones ponders the naval preparations of the enemy and the consequences of possibly losing the Mississippi.

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A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary at the Confederate States Capital, By John Beauchamp Jones

OCTOBER 28th.—The most gigantic naval preparations have been made by the enemy; and they must strike many blows on the coast this fall and winter. They are building great numbers of gun-boats, some of them iron-clad, both for the coast and for the Western rivers. If they get possession of the Mississippi River, it will [...]

Fremont’s Hundred Days in Missouri.

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The Atlantic Monthly

Springfield, October 28th. Few of those who endured the labor of yesterday will forget the march into Springfield. At midnight of Saturday, the Sharp-shooters were sent on in wagons, and at two in the morning the Benton Cadets started, with orders to march that day to Springfield, thirty miles. Their departure broke the repose of [...]

Civil War Day-By-Day

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Civil War Day-by-Day

October 28, 1861 A Chronological History of the Civil War in America1 A rebel transportation train captured by Gen. Lane near Butler, Mo. Battle at Cromwell, Ky.; rebels lost two killed and five wounded. Battle at Saratoga, Ky.: Union loss three wounded; rebel loss 13 killed, 17 wounded, and 44 prisoners. A Chronological History of [...]

“Oh, to have a Division-commissary’s head in a lemon-squeezer!” — Woolsey family letters, Francis Bacon to Georgeanna Woolsey..

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Woolsey family letters during the War for the Union

Hampton Roads, Oct. 27th. We still loiter here in a seeming imbecile way, waiting now for weather and now for nobody knows what. Meanwhile patience and strength are ebbing in twelve thousand men. The condition of some of the regiments on shipboard is said to be very bad. Ours is fortunate in its ship, and [...]

“We are up nearly an hour before sun up, have breakfast about sunrise, drill (company) from about 8 to 10.”–Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, Charles Wright Wills.

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Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, Charles Wright Wills, (8th Illinois Infantry)

Bird’s Point, October 27, 1861. I haven’t written for a full week because I really had nothing to write and in fact I have not now. Although soldiering is a hugely lazy life, yet these short days we seem to have but little spare time. We are up nearly an hour before sun up, have [...]