Yesterday was the anniversary of our dear Papa’s death #cw150

June 16, 1862

Yesterday James came in whilst we were at dinner, hot, dusty & tired.  He brought us the rumour that our army of the west, now that Corinth has been evacuated, is to be with drawn entirely & thrown before Richmond. Fort Pillow has at length fallen, having been flanked by a land force, & Memphis is in the hands of the enemy.  No cotton found there, however, it all having been burned.  Our cotton clad fleet under Jeff Thompson is destroyed & Vicksburg alone remains to make any opposition to the navigation of theMississippi.

Yesterday was the anniversary of our dear Papa’s death.  Ah! what a loss to us.  He has the bond that kept us united into one family & now that he is gone how separated are we all.  We have not heard even from any of the family for two months.  Children are born to them & we hear it accidentally only.  A severance seems to have taken place & we are no longer one family but several; each son is the head of his own circle & now that the central head is gone around which all revolved each goes on in his own eccentric orbit without heed to the other—the course of nature, I suppose, but it seems very sad.

A brilliant exploit has enlivened our Army before Richmond.  Gen Stuart with a strong force of Cavalry left Richmond on a reconnaissance and made a circuit of the entire lines of the enemy, burning three transports loaded with supplies, overthrowing a force of Cavalry sent to oppose him, & taking many prisoners and 300 mules & horses besides destroying a number of army wagons & a warehouse filled with Coffee.  He left Richmond on Thursday, went by Hanover Court House around to the Pamuncky where he burned the vessels, & returned by the Charles City road.  He reached the Chicahominy during the night of Friday & found the stream swollen & the bridge destroyed.  What was to be done?  The cavalry could cross at some risk by swimming, but what of the prisoners & mules?

During the conference a friendly voice whispered in the darkness, “The old bridge can be repaired.  The sleepers are standing.  It is but a little way up the stream.”  Placing a guard over the prisoners with directions to shoot them if they made a noise, to work they went & before the following foe could overtake them in the darkness the bridge was repaired.  Men & horses crossed over & as day dawned on them they could see the Yankees mustering on the other side; but in vain!—their escape was made and they entered Richmond in triumph!  Truly a brilliant episode.

Went to the plantation with Mr E & commenced digging up my Hyacinth roots.  To my sorrow I found some of the finest of them rotted.  So much, Mrs Edmondston, for procrastination or over particularity in wishing to see it done yourself.

 

Source: Edmondston, Catherine Ann Devereux, 1823-1875, Journal of a Secesh Lady: The Diary of Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston 1860-1866. Crabtree, Beth G and Patton, James W., (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1979). http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net/478.html

Read Full Post »

All here is peaceful & happy—a bright contrast to some portions of our desolated country #cw150

June 1, 1862

Mr Edmondston well enough to leave his room today for which I thank God most fervently.  He has suffered much & so patiently that he has excited the sympathy of all who have seen him.  Ah! that his recovery may rapid & that I may soon see him in full health & vigour.  His thin pale face & sad eyes go to my heart & then he is so weak that it is sad to look at him!  It frets him the more as he is absolutely unable to attend to any business what ever & his Battalion needs him as his time for raising it is short, and it will be a sore disappointment to him to fail in it.  First the Conscript Act & the liberty allowed to Ranger Companies & now his sickness gives another heavy blow to it.

No public news.  The army still has its rear on Richmond& the enemy advancing & entrenching.  Skirmishes & serious ones constantly occurring, but in view of the great conflict now close at hand we over look their importance.  An article in Friday Dispatch announced that the enemy were in full retreat in consequence of Jackson’s victory & the danger to the Capitol and that Gustavus Smith, the second in command, was pressing upon them, but the unblushing Editor after sounding a flourish over the news, singing an “O be joyful” & saying that it would hecenforth be a day sacred in Richmond on Friday, on Sat., congratulates his readers that the “bad news” of the enemy’s retreat without a fight is not so & tho’ he assured us one day that he had it from the highest authority & that it had been known to our generals for three days, on the next he gravely tells us that it had no foundation in fact.  Truth, blessed angel, why have you deserted this Earth?

At Corinth matters stand as they have done since the battle of Shiloh, skirmishing but nothing important.  The Bombardment of Fort Pillow still goes on furiously but ineffectually.  At Vicksburg the inhabitants have defied the Enemy, despite his threat of shelling the town & determine on a bloody resistance, so he is still far from the possession of the Father of Waters.

The eyes of the nation are fixed on Richmond & Corinth where desperate battles must soon ensue.  God defend the right!

Brother John has gone down as temporary Aid without pay to General Martin who, shorn of his glory as Major General of the forces of N C by the Conscript act, has accepted a Brigadiership in the C S A.  I hope Master Johnnie will not stay long there.  It is a post not worthy of him.  James E has received the appointment of Quarter Master C S A and has been assigned to duty to the 3d Brigade, Col Daniel acting Brigadier & stationed at Weldon.

Two years ago today the first entry in this book is dated & what a change has come over the country since then!  This was then but a record of domestic incidents, trifling in themselves, but interesting to us, because they made up our lives.  Now how different!  My garden, that great source of interest, passes unnoticed by & my housekeeping, which absorbed so large a portion, is now not deemed worthy of a single entry; but battles and sieges, bloodshed, and the suffering of a mighty country occupy every thought.  For once I will recur to my former simple home tastes & for auld lang syne give them a casual notice.

I have had a grand house cleaning this week.  Every thing has on it summer garb & is as clean as Cuffee can make it.  I might, were the times better, say with Mrs Nicely in the School for Reform, “Ah! a clean house & a clean conscience will make any one merry,” so neat is it.

I am assuming myself in the manufacture of Fly brushes of my Peacocks feathers 7 have just completed one for Mrs Lippitt that I consider a marvel of beauty.

As to the Garden, it is particularly backward.  We have but few of the vegetables which it ought to give us at this season.  As regards Peas, I excuse it, for during our continued absences this spring the pigeons & birds took them under their care & tho often replanted they never failed in their attentions!  But for Beets, Lettuce, Snaps, Squashes, etc., Garden!  I fear I must pronounce you ungrateful, for you had every appliance to enable you to perform your duty.  Strawberries we have & have had in abundance for a month past.  Our Quinces are for the first time in their lives loaded with fruit & as I walk past them, both themselves & the Strawberries seem to look at me saucily & defiantly, as tho’ they would say “Preserve me if you dare!” for they must know that I have not sugar to spare for such luxuries.  The Apples, even my young trees, are most promising, the peaches abundant.  The old Pears are loaded with fruit, whilst a few are even to be seen on some of the Dwarf Pears in the garden for the first time.  The flower Garden has been magnificent, “The Gardens of Gul in their bloom,”Paestum, or any other garden either of poetry or antiquity never surpassed it!  I trace an outline of a bud of Isabella Grey which has not yet commenced to expand, the green calyx barely beginning to turn back in proof of it.  It has been five days gathered & has shrunk.  Sir Joseph Paxton has been a blaze of beauty & the blooms on Fellenburg & Beauty of Greenmount are literally countless; but I feel in enumerating them as a General might who cannot name all the soldiers who distinguish themselves & when he once commences does not know where to stop, for Woodland Margaret looks at me reproachfully, whilst “Thad Trotter,” “Rivers,” “Alex Backmetoff” & Giant of Battles seem to glow redder with indignation at being passed over and Alpha grows more saffron with mortification.  So I desist.  The Dahlias are growing fine and have increased greatly so that I look for a harvest of beauty from them.

All here is peaceful & happy—a bright contrast to some portions of our desolated country.  Teach me to estimate the blessing as I ought!  Give me, O God, a grateful heart and to our country the blessing of Peace!  One thing reminds me of war, a trifle it is too, but still a change in my domestic economy: I have come to the manufacture of Tallow Candles!  Fanny & I worry over the wicks & Patrick over the light, whilst Vinyard is kept on the qui vive about grease on the floor.  Some people have not the tallow to make candles of, so I have another cause of gratitude.

Source: Edmondston, Catherine Ann Devereux, 1823-1875, Journal of a Secesh Lady: The Diary of Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston 1860-1866. Crabtree, Beth G and Patton, James W., (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1979). http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net/478.html

Read Full Post »

We know not what moment may see us over run by a horde of Yankee savages #civilwar150

May 17, 1862

The “advantages of a state of expectation” are not I fear properly appreciated by us, for we have lived in a Micawber like frame of mind—looking “for something to turn up” for weeks now & we do not find it pleasant.  First about the Battalion, the 17th it was supposed would settle that, as after that day the Government takes all the organization of troops into its own hands by the operation of the Conscript Act.  But that day has arrived but with it no end of our expectant state.  For Patrick now waits for letters which come not & upon which nags its fate.  Then Burnside keeps us with the sword of Damocles over our heads.  We know not what moment may see us over run by a horde of Yankee savages.  Then in a national point of view, we are still more “expectant,” for all eyes are turned both to Corinth & Richmond, daily expecting “sounds as of an army joined.”  God be with us & grant us nationally and personally a deliverance from all our troubles, or the strength to bear them.

 

Source: Edmondston, Catherine Ann Devereux, 1823-1875, Journal of a Secesh Lady: The Diary of Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston 1860-1866. Crabtree, Beth G and Patton, James W., (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1979). http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net/478.html

Read Full Post »

mail carrier says they are fighting at Corinth again #cw150

 

Tuesday 13^th [May 1862]

I finished Willie’s dress. Mr. Henry started to Uncle Dillard Love’s this morning, will be gone about a week. Hanes out dropping peas today. Jinnie not well yet. She attended to Willie after dinner. We had heavy rain & thunder this evening. Atheline is improving very slow. The mail carrier says they are fighting at Corinth again. We have had a battle at Williamsburg Va., in which we were victorious. God help our course is my prayer.

Source: Diary of Cornelia Henry in Fear in North Carolina: The Civil War Journal and Letters of the Henry 

Read Full Post »

The spirit of Lies seems indeed to be abroad #cw150

May 12, 1862 (part 1)

The spirit of Lies seems indeed to be abroad.  We can truly say with the Scotch Clergyman in his comment on the text, “I said in my haste all men are Liars,”  “Ah, David, my mon gin you were in this parish ye might say it at your Leisure”!  There has been no fight at Barhamville & no Yankees at Greenville, consequently we did not drive them three times to their Gun boats, nor are they threatening the R R at Wilson.

A great battle is imminent at Corinth & inVa.  Two such armies cannot long face each other thus.  How much nags on the event!  Gun boats are going up James River.  Where is the Va that she allows it, protecting the Evacuation of Norfolk, I suppose.  Ah! what a blunder is there!

On coming home from my visit to Mrs. Hines, I finished some lines which I had commenced years ago.  Something said in our conversation reminded me of & put me in a frame of mind for them.  Ah my God! make us indeed feel that “as our days, so shall our Strength be,” now in the time of this our Country’s darkest gloom!

Source: Edmondston, Catherine Ann Devereux, 1823-1875, Journal of a Secesh Lady: The Diary of Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston 1860-1866. Crabtree, Beth G and Patton, James W., (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1979). http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net/478.html

 

Read Full Post »

Cornelia on making a dress: It is very tough sewing & dreadful rotten #cw150 #sewing

Thursday 8^th [May 1862]

I finished Zona’s dress just after dinner & cut out a pea green chambra* dress for her, one Sister Jane gave her when we were down there. Dr. Neilson was here this evening, think Atheline a good deal better. He staid some time. Mr. Henry went to Asheville this morning, came home to dinner, is at the dam this evening. Hanes out in the field. Lonzo attends to Willie today. Hanes stays till 9 o’clock or till after I get the house cleaned.

Friday 9^th [May 1862]

Mail brought no news this morning & battle is expected at Corinth& another at Yorktown soon. I sewed on Zona’s dress. It is very tough sewing & dreadful rotten. Warm & pleasant. Our garden is getting on slowly. The fly or something has destroyed all our cabbage plants.

 

*Chambray Fabric: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambric

 

Source: Diary of Cornelia Henry in Fear in North Carolina: The Civil War Journal and Letters of the Henry Family. Clinard, Karen L. and Russell, Richard, eds. (Asheville,NC: Reminiscing Books, 2008).

Read Full Post »

I fear Gen Lee is at the bottom of all this. He is too timid #cw150

May 6, 1862

Mr E. really sick.  He has been very unwell since Thursday.  Indeed he has not been himself since he came home & the miserable uncertainty he is under about his Battalion aggravates it.  Today he is really sick & suffering and I only able to creep about.  So there is a pair of us!

Neither health or spirits were improved by a Bomb Shell which Sue threw into our midst, viz., that preparations to evacuate Norfolk were going on!  It seemed madness.  Are we never to cease retiring?  Are we to give up undisturbed possession of the water to our enemies?  For with the loss of the Navy Yard all hopes of a Navy are forever lost to us.  Of what use will breaking of the Blockade be to us when we have no longer a Port to unlock?  And theVirginia?  What of her?  Is she too to be sacrificed?  For with no place to fall back upon, what will be her fate, it will not be difficult to guess—captured or blown up to avoid capture as the Louisannia was by her commander.  What can Mr Davis mean?  I fear Gen Lee is at the bottom of all this.  He is too timid, believes too much in masterly inactivity, finds “his strength” too much in “sitting still.”

Our Army is falling back fromYorktownaway from these dreaded Gunboats, leaving their intrenchments & I suppose abandoning their Cannon after attempting to spike them.  The Gunboats of the enemy have advanced up thye York River toWest Point& thus compelled the destruction by our own hands of five gun boats which we had there in process of building.  We, of course, “fell back”!  Perhaps the notion may be to wear out the U S Government, crush them with a debt too heavy for them to bear.  It may be so, but in the mean time they try a most dangerous experiment with our own people.  But I remember Gen A SJohnston& try to be content & think Gen Joe Johnson and Mr Davis know best.  But it is hard work.  He (Gen Johnson) is falling back to the line of the Chickahominy, where I suppose he means to make a final stand & a desperate defense forRichmond.

Rumours of an impending fight atCorinthyesterday or today.  Grant us, O Lord, the Victory!

Amo Coffin left forRaleightoday.  Things begin to look brighter for the Battalion.

Ah! if Dr Ward had done his duty & either been Major or declined it & let Patrick choose another who would have been an assistant to him, what a world of trouble he would have spared!  Burnside is moving—but where, it is for the future to disclose.

Came a letter from Mr Hall saying that he goes into Camp today & will report to Patrick tomorrow.

Oh! for health & strength once more!

Source: Edmondston, Catherine Ann Devereux, 1823-1875, Journal of a Secesh Lady: The Diary of Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston 1860-1866. Crabtree, Beth G and Patton, James W., (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1979). http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net/478.html

Read Full Post »

4-25-1862: Catherine reviews losses and victories across the Confederacy in her diary #cw150

April 25, 1862

Letter from Patrick at Yanceyville; may be at home tomorrow; has mustered Capt Reinhart’s Co for “Edmondston’s Batalion of Light Horse.”  He goes to Richmond to see the Sec of War, thence home.  Would that I were well to welcome him.

The smoke of Battle has cleared up from the field of Corinth & seems now settled that on Monday we had a splendid Victory equal to Manassas, dimmed only by the loss of Gen A S Johnson; but the enemy during the night being reinforced by Buel snatched its fruits from the grasp of our jaded troops & retook much of their field artillery which we had captured the day before, but we burnt their tents & camp equipage, inflicting a heavy loss on them besides sleeping Sunday night in their encampment.  Monday’s battle was a drawn one, both sides falling back.

Island No 10 was taken by a feat of the most remarkable Engineering skill ever displayed & for which the enemy deserve the greatest credit for their energy & perserverance, being nothing less than the sawing out a passage through a swamp, capable of passing their gun boats around the Island & thus flanking & attacking it on the undefended side.  They took advantage of a swamp called the “Earthquake seam,”  it having been the effect of a supposed Earthquake years ago & now grown up into a thick & impassable swamp.  At high water their boats can readily float but trees, some of them three feet through, fill the whole space.  Nothing daunted, the engineers went to work & sawed a passage three feet under water the whole distance.  The branches interlock, so that it was necessary to use ladders of rope for the men to ascend them & cut off the branches which interfered with their smoke stacks.  The details are so marvelous that, as our Northern brethren are given to lying, we must be excused believing them all.  The fact that they passed is wonderful enough.  Ah! that the Mississippi had fallen to its usual level suddenly & impaled their gun boats upon the snags & stumps they had just sawed off with such labour!  Our men being thus out flanked, spiked their guns, sunk their gunboats, destroyed what of the provisions & ammunition they could & then all who were able made their escape.  Our sick of course were forced to remain & a number who could not get over the River.  The adventures of those who did escape are thrilling!

Bad news from New Orleans.  Two steamers have succeeded in passing the Forts and are on their way to the city.  We have some Iron boats above them however which they will have to pass.  I hope they will give a good account of themselves.

The finding of the Court of Inquiry appointed to investigate the causes of the Roanoke Island disaster is that Maj Gen Huger & the late Sec of War Mr J B Benjamin are to blame for the whole affair.  The situation of the defences were repeatedly represented to them by Gen Wise & Col Shaw.  A deputation of gentlemen from the neighboring Counties waited on the Sec & offered to send their negroes there to complete the fortification but to no purpose.  If their consciences have not already done so, the Court has now planted a thorn in their pillows for them.

The affair at South Mills in Pasquotank County grows in importance.  Col Wright’s Georgia Regt repulsed three Yankee ones under Gen Reno, captured their canon, & the powder they had provided to blow up the Locks of the Canal, besides killing & wounding many.  Our loss slight.

 Source: Edmondston, Catherine Ann Devereux, 1823-1875, Journal of a Secesh Lady: The Diary of Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston 1860-1866. Crabtree, Beth G and Patton, James W., (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1979). http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net/478.html

Read Full Post »

Reports of soldier deaths in Greensboro paper #civilwar150

From for the Iredell Express.

An Incident in the Newbern Fight.

 The following incident, illustrating the spirit that animated our brave soldiers in the battle at Newbern, was related to the writer by a worthy young man who was in the engagement.

 In the gallant charge made by the 7th Regiment, as they dashed along, his eyes fell upon the prostrate forms of three fellow soldiers – one of whom had been shot dead; the others seemed pale, bleeding, dying.  But one, whose face was towards him, recognizing him, — his eyes were filled with tears–and waving his trembling hand exclaimed:

 “Rally on them my brave boys!  Rally on them!  That’s what I like to see you do.”

 This, continued the narrator, seemed to inspire him with redoubled energy had determination as he pressed forward upon the enemy’s line.

         Let the words of this devoted fallen soldier, nerve the arms and encourage the hearts of the many noble ones who yet survive to rally on the foe as every point till he shall be driven from our soil, and compelled to give up the combat and “let us alone.”

 Killed at Corinth.

Francis R. Moring formerly of Greensboro, N. C. was killed in the battle near Corinth Mississippi on Monday April 7th, 1862.  He was a member of a Company belonging to Knoxville, Tenn., and fell during a charge in which his regiment succeeded in capturing a Regiment of Illinois troops.  He was the youngest son of Christopher and Frances Moring, aged twenty-six years.

 DEATHS.

Died – At Camp Mangum, near Raleigh 12th inst., Private Thomas Vincent, a member of “Guilford Light Infantry” Co. C, 45th Regt. N. C. Troops in the 20th year of his age.  He was a faithful soldier, and leaves a widowed mother to mourn his loss.

 Picket Killed.—On last Wednesday, private Whitehurst of Capt. Cole’s company, 2d Cavalry, was accidentally killed while on picket duty.  He had been lying down and on getting up was leaning on his elbow when his musket fell and was discharged, lodging the entire load of buckshot immediately below the right ear of the unfortunate man, killing him instantly.  He was highly esteemed in the company.  He was taken to Trenton for interment.—Raleigh State Journal.

 

Source: All articles from Greensborough Patriot, April 24, 1862 as found on Confederate Newspaper Project

Read Full Post »

Charles Hickerson is in love as usual with some girl in Kinston #cw150

Camp Ransom

Near Kinston

April 19^th 1862

 Dear Frank

            I wish you to write me immediately and let me know how Ben is and when you think he will be able to return to camp.  I wish his health to be entirely restored before he comes.  I think there will be no advance of the enemy on this road.  I regret very much leaving the army in Va.  It will be exceedingly hot here this summer, and nothing to eat but bread & bacon.  If Crumpler passes through Wilkesboro on his return to camp send me 2 pair of red gloves size 8 ½ and some towels.  I wish you would have me 2 pair of drawers made by Ann Hines if you can get any suitable material.  Let them be made of the size of some of my old ones you will find in my wardrobe.

            How did the draft fall upon our peoples?  The conscription Act I think is the very thing for the occasion. It will bring into the service many men who have been shirking the cause.  I suppose you have heard of the fight at Corinth.  We have news here that there is a fight going on at or near Richmond.  Our troops so far from home are prepared for the enemy.  There will be much fighting during the next 2 months.  I think we will have but little to do here on this line.  Our horses are improving rapidly and soon we will commence picket duty.  Lt. Col Robinson of Spruills Cavalry, who was said to have been killed in a skirmish some days since.  He was only wounded and taken prisoner.

            I spent a day with Col Barber a few days ago.    He is quite well and seems quite pleasant with the service.  He has gotten over his pneumonia in regards to himself.  Charles Hickerson is in love as usual with some girl in Kinston.  The same Charles of old.  Write me soon and direct to Kinston Lenoir Cty NC.  I have recd my commission for lt. Col.  My love to Carrie and tell her to kiss the baby for me.

Yours truly,

J.B. Gordon

Sources: Christopher Watford, ed. The Civil War in North Carolina: Soldiers’ and Civilians’ Letters and Diaries, 1861-1865, Volume 2. (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2003).  Original in the James G. Hackett Papers, North Carolina State Archives.

Read Full Post »