AUGUST 31st.—We have bad news to-day. My wife and children are the bearers of it. They returned to the city with the tidings that all the women and children were ordered to leave Newbern. The enemy have attacked and taken Fort Hatteras, making many prisoners, and threaten Newbern next. This is the second time my [...]

August 31st.–Congress adjourns to-day. Jeff Davis ill. We go home on Monday if I am able to travel. Already I feel the dread stillness and torpor of our Sahara of a Sand Hill creeping into my veins. It chills the marrow of my bones. I am reveling in the noise of city life. I know [...]

August 31, 1861 Samuel Cooper, Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, Joseph E. Johnston and P. G. T. Beauregard are promoted to full general.

A bushwhacker, or Confederate guerilla fighter. Wood engraving, American, 1867 “Civil War Guerilla, Engraving, 1667.” Granger. Accessed August 29, 2021. www.granger.com/results.asp?inline=true&image=0066702….

AUGUST 30th.—Gen. Floyd has had a fight in the West, and defeated an Ohio regiment. I trust they were of the Puritan stock, and not the descendants of Virginians.

August 30, 1861 John C. Fremont declares martial law in Missouri and frees slaves of Missouri Confederates. A Chronological History of the Civil War in America1 Fort Morgan, at Okracoke, abandoned by the rebels. (Alabama) Major-Gen. Fremont issued a proclamation declaring martial law throughout Missouri, and also declaring that the property of rebels should be [...]

The fatal shooting of Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth, Colonel of the New York Fire Zouaves and the first notable Northern fatality of the Civil War, in Alexandria, Virginia on 24 May 1861. Steel engraving, 19th century. “Zouave Fatality, 1861.” Granger. Accessed August 29, 2021. www.granger.com…. Mike’s notes: Image restoration note – This image has been digitally [...]

August 29th.–No more feminine gossip, but the licensed slanderer, the mighty Russell, of the Times. He says the battle of the 21st was fought at long range: 500 yards apart were the combatants. The Confederates were steadily retreating when some commotion in the wagon train frightened the “Yanks,” and they made tracks. In good English, [...]

AUGUST 29th.—We have intelligence from the North that immense preparations are being made for our destruction; and some of our people begin to say, that inasmuch as we did not follow up the victory at Manassas, it was worse than a barren one, having only exasperated the enemy, and stimulated the Abolitionists to renewed efforts. [...]

August 29, 1861 The Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries gives Federal forces control of Pamlico Sound. A Chronological History of the Civil War in America1 Lexington, Mo., attacked by 2,000 rebels. The place was defended by 250 men, who successfully beat off their assailants. Twenty~three rebels captured at Greytown, Mo. A Chronological History of the [...]

AUGUST 28th.—Beauregard offers battle again on the plains of Manassas; but it is declined by the enemy, who retire behind their fortifications. Our banners are advanced to Munson’s Hill, in sight of Washington. The Northern President and his cabinet may see our army, with good glasses, from the roof of the White House. It is [...]

August 28, 1861 Union forces attack Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in the Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries which lasts for two days. Ulysses S. Grant is given command of federal forces in Southern Illinois and Southeastern Missouri. A Chronological History of the Civil War in America1 Bombardment and capture of forts Clark and Hatteras on [...]

August 27th.–Theodore Barker and James Lowndes came; the latter has been wretchedly treated. A man said, “All that I wish on earth is to be at peace and on my own plantation,” to which Mr. Lowndes replied quietly, “I wish I had a plantation to be on, but just now I can’t see how any [...]

AUGUST 27th.—We have news of a fight at Hawk’s Nest, Western Virginia. Wise whipped the Yankees there quite handsomely.

Boston, August 27, 1861 Your tone is too dull in your letters and I feel for you sincerely in your Bull-run panic in England. Here things certainly look much better and people feel much better. The money market is easy and our exportation of breadstuffs seems likely to continue. Finally, this steamer will advise you [...]

August 27, 1861 Union forces take fortifications on Cape Hatteras.

AUGUST 26th.—What a number of cavalry companies are daily tendered in the letters received at this department. Almost invariably they are refused; and really it is painful to me to write these letters. This government must be aware, from the statistics of the census, that the South has quite as many horses as the North, [...]

August 26th.–The Terror has full swing at the North now. All the papers favorable to us have been suppressed. How long would our mob stand a Yankee paper here? But newspapers against our government, such as the Examiner and the Mercury flourish like green bay-trees. A man up to the elbows in finance said to-day: [...]

In the book, the following appears as a post script to a letter that was written on August 5.   However, Henry’s brother, Charles, replied on August 23 to a “letter of the 5th” from Henry.P.S. August 26. After studying over the accounts of the battle and reading Russell’s letter to the Times, I hardly [...]

August 26, 1861 Battle of (Kessler’s) Cross Lanes. General John Floyd routs an Ohio regiment General Benjamin Butler leads a successful amphibious landing on Cape Hatteras. King Kamehameha IV proclaimed the neutrality of the Hawaiian Islands during the Civil War. A Chronological History of the Civil War in America1 Seventh Ohio Regiment, while breakfasting at [...]

AUGUST 25th.—I believe the Secretary will resign; but “immediate” still lies on his table. News of a battle near Springfield, Mo. McCulloch and Price defeat the Federals, killing and wounding thousands. Gen. Lyon killed.

August 25th.–Mr. Barnwell says democracies lead to untruthfulness. To be always electioneering is to be always false; so both we and the Yankees are unreliable as regards our own exploits. “How about empires? Were there ever more stupendous lies than the Emperor Napoleon’s?” Mr. Barnwell went on: “People dare not tell the truth in a [...]

  Quincy, Sunday, August 25, 1861 In my letter I begged you to go to work and try to make the two countries understand each other, for to my eye our foreign relations look very formidable. Why, when England and France are collecting fleets in our southern waters, do we all of a sudden hear [...]

AUGUST 24th.—We are resting on our oars after the victory at Manassas, while the enemy is drilling and equipping 500,000 or 600,000 men. I hope we may not soon be floating down stream! We know the enemy is, besides, building iron-clad steamers—and yet we are not even erecting casemate batteries! We are losing precious time, [...]