Wednesday, November 17, 2021

John Beauchamp Jones writes about special passports for letter-carriers carrying letters and other things between Confederacy and the North.

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NOVEMBER 17th.—There are also quite a number of letter-carriers obtaining special passports to leave the Confederacy. They charge $1.50 postage to Washington and Maryland, and as much coming hither. They take on the average three hundred letters, and bring as many, besides diverse articles they sell at enormously high prices. Thus they realize $1000 per [...]

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

“But cotton tents will be bad quarters for snowy, freezing weather; and if we do not have better, I fear we shall lose much from disease this winter.”–Letters from Elisha Franklin Paxton.

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Camp near Winchester, November 17, 1861. Soldiering for the past week has been a hard business. For two or three days we had cold rains, and the balance of the time very severe winds. The wind is perhaps more severe than the rain, as it makes our outdoor fires very uncomfortable, it being doubtful whether [...]

Elisha Franklin Paxton – Letters from camp and field while an officer in the Confederate Army

“The papers contain joyous articles on the Trent affair..,”—William Howard Russell’s Diary.

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November 17th.–For my sins I went to see a dress parade of the 6th Regular Cavalry early this morning, and underwent a small purgatory from the cold, on a bare plain, whilst the men and officers, with red cheeks and blue noses, mounted on horses with staring coats, marched, trotted, and cantered past. The papers [...]

My Diary North and South – William Howard Russell