January 22d.–Another day of sleet and gloom. The pavements are almost impassable from the enamel of ice; large icicles hang from the houses, and the trees are bent down with the weight of frost.

The mails have failed, and there is no telegraphic intelligence, the wires being down probably. It rained very fast all day yesterday, and I apprehend the railroad bridges have been destroyed in many places.

The young men (able-bodied) near the Secretary of War and the Assistant Secretary, at the War Department, say, this morning, that both have resigned.

It is said the Kentucky Congressmen oppose the acceptance of the portfolio of war by Gen. Breckinridge.

Whoever accepts it must reform the conscription business and the passport business, else the cause will speedily be lost. Most of our calamities may be traced to these two sources.

Sunday, 22d–A detail from our regiment was sent out along the road today to help the loaded wagons across the deep mud-holes, as they come through from Beaufort. It is reported that the Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps have crossed into South Carolina and are floundering in the mud bottoms of the Savannah river.

Sunday, 22d.—Left Tupelo at day-light; ran very slowly. Stalled, and we had to walk half-mile.

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

21st.—We hear nothing cheering except in the proceedings of Congress and the Virginia Legislature, particularly the latter. Both bodies look to stern resistance to Federal authority. The city and country are full of rumours and evil surmising; and while we do not believe one word of the croaking, it makes us feel restless and unhappy.

Steamer “Cosmopolitan,” bound to Beaufort from
Savannah, Ga.,
January 21, 1864. ¹

I was at Beaufort some three days when I received a detail on a “military commission” to sit at headquarters, 4th Division of our corps at Savannah. Reported at Savannah on the 17th and found my commission had finished its business and adjourned, all of which satisfied me. Have been ever since trying to get back to the regiment, but all of the vessels which run on this line have been in use as lighters, transfering the 19th Corps (which now occupies Savannah) from the large steamers which have to stop at the bar up the river. This 19th Corps is a portion of Sheridan’s command and helped him win those glorious victories in the valley. They are a fine soldierly-looking body of men, but have already had some difficulty with our troops. As I left the city I saw the wind up of a snug little fight between a portion of the 20th and 19th Corps. Noticed about 40 bloody faces. All this kind of work grows out of corps pride. Fine thing, isn’t it, We left the wharf at 2 p.m. yesterday, grounded about 5 p.m., and had to wait for high tide, which came at midnight; then a heavy rain and fog set in and we have made little progress since. Are now, 11 a.m., at anchor, supposed to be near the mouth of Scull Creek waiting for the fog to clear up. I am terribly bored at being away from the regiment so long. I feel lost, out of place and blue. What glorious news from Fort Fisher, and what a horrid story that is about 13 out of the 15 prisoners the Rebels had of our regiment, dying of starvation. One of them, W. G. Dunblazier, was of my company, and a better boy or braver soldier never shouldered a musket. He was captured on the skirmish line at Dallas.

_______

¹ This piece is dated January 1864 and sequenced in 1864 in the book.   However, the events discussed and the location place it in 1865, which is where it is inserted here.

21st. Saturday. Rainy and raw. Scouting party went out to Cedar Creek, through the Gap and around the mountain and came back by Fawcett’s Gap. Awful day. A hunt for Imboden’s men. No one seen.

January 21st.–A dark, cold, sleety day, with rain. Troopers and scouts from the army have icicles hanging from their hats and caps, and their clothes covered with frost, and dripping.

The Examiner this morning says very positively that Mr. Secretary Seddon has resigned. Not a word about Messrs. Benjamin and Mallory–yet. The recent action of Congress is certainly a vote of censure, with great unanimity.

It is said Congress, in secret session, has decreed the purchase of all the cotton and tobacco! The stable locked after the horse is gone! If it had been done in 1861––

Mr. Secretary Trenholm is making spasmodic efforts to mend the currency–selling cotton and tobacco to foreign (Yankee) agents for gold and sterling bills, and buying Treasury notes at the market depreciation. For a moment he has reduced the price of gold from $80 to $50 for $1; but the flood will soon overwhelm all opposition, sweeping every obstruction away. [continue reading…]

Saturday, 21st–It is still raining. The teams are going back and forth day and night, hauling provisions. The roads are so bad now at places that the teams get stuck in the mud.

January 20th. Severe cold weather since the last date. Deep snow and plenty. The inhabitants have always claimed the Yankees brought the cold weather. Such severe winters do not come to Virginia but once in many years. Our regular routine of duty is, and must be, kept up in spite of the severe weather. It is two hours on duty and four off. The report of a gun calls up the other two reliefs. The corporal must investigate and find out the cause of the alarm. If more than one gun is fired, the camp guard reports firing on the picket line. The Colonel is notified. He orders the sounding of the long roll, calling out the regiment. Everything is kept ready for a sudden call in the night. We turn out very lively, soon in line.

20th. Friday. On picket. Bill Smith on, too. Line visited by Col. Randall, Brig. Ins. and Capt. Houghton, and Officer of the Day.

January 20th.–Clear and cold. No news–that is bad news. Nothing has transpired officially of the events and details near Wilmington, but there is a rumor, exaggerated perhaps, of the fall of Wilmington itself. No doubt Sherman is marching on Charleston, and if there be no battle soon, it is feared he will take the city without one.

Mr. Foote made a speech in Congress yesterday–a savage one, I am told. Going home yesterday at 3 o’clock, I met Mr. Foote, and told him what I had heard. He said he could have wished me to hear every word of it. I asked if it would not be printed. He held up a roll of manuscript, saying he had written it in full, and that it would certainly be published. The papers say in their brief reports, that he disavowed all ideas of reconstruction. After he left the House, one of the Missouri members offered a resolution for his expulsion, on the ground that he had, unlawfully, attempted to pass into the enemy’s lines, for the purpose of negotiating a peace, etc. It was referred to the Committee on Elections. [continue reading…]

Friday, 20th–It rained all day and the roads are becoming quite muddy.

(excerpts)

“HD. QRTS., Jan. 20th, 1865.

“My dear Wigfall:
“Your message to me by Mr. Davis reached me a day or two ago. As I am about to start to S. C., I anticipate your letter by writing at once to you. It gave me great pleasure to see your return mentioned.

” . . . We are passing through a fiery ordeal but if we ‘quit ourselves like men’ we must be successful. I do not allow myself to contemplate any other than a successful issue to our struggle.

“I have given far more than all my property to this cause, and I am ready to give all. Genl. Lee thinks that I may be of some service in South Carolina and I go to see what I can do there… I am going to fight for my State and I am willing to fight anywhere. The record of the cavalry which has fought under my command, is that this campaign has been an honorable one, and I take great pride in it. They have been successful in every fight—not a few—have captured large supplies of arms and taken not less than 10,000 prisoners. So I leave the record good…. What will be done with the Army of Tennessee? You know how highly I regard Hood, how much I esteem him. but it was a mistake to remove Johnston. The army had perfect confidence in him and I am convinced that they will not fight as well under anyone else as under him; therefore do I regard his removal as a national calamity. And if the President would reinstate him it would not only restore public confidence, but would strengthen the President greatly. I wish, my dear Wigfall, that you would forget the differences of the past and try to re-establish the intimate relations that once existed between Mr. Davis and yourself. You can aid him greatly and you can serve the country by giving him counsel…. I wish that I could have seen you before leaving this State, as there is much I want to talk to you about. But I hope to meet you in brighter times when my heart is not so oppressed by public and private anxieties. . . . But I bate not one jot or tittle of our claims and I shall fight as long as I can wield my sabre. I hope your family are well. Give my kindest regards to them and believe me to be,

“Very sincerely, your friend,
“WADE HAMPTON.

“Hon. L. T. Wigfall,
“Write to Columbia.”

Jan. 20 – Return to Regiment with boxes.

Boxes for the Soldiers.

Families at home sent thousands of boxes to husbands, fathers, sons and brothers during the war. Some contained pieces of clothing that the soldier would fall and be buried in. We had no chance to wash and dress those who fell in battle. Some of those boxes contained the last food the mother ever cooked for her soldier boy. The soldier seldom could go to the station to claim his box. The Chaplain was often a convenient, cheerful agent. It sometimes involved a great deal of care and fatigue to take boxes from home in N. C. to the army in Va. To hunt them up and get them to the soldiers after they had reached Va. was no light task But, thank God, “Love lightens labor.”

19th. Thursday. Quiet day in hut. Out to daily duties. Read Atlantic. Coates made Capt. in Colored Regt. yesterday. Snowing.

January 19th.–Clear and frosty. Among the rumors, it would appear that the Senate in secret session has passed a resolution making Lee generalissimo.

It is again said Mr. Seddon will resign, and be followed by Messrs. Benjamin and Mallory, etc.

The following dispatch was received by the President yesterday:

“Tupelo, Miss., January 17th, 1865.–Roddy’s brigade (cav.) is useless as at present located by the War Department. I desire authority to dispose of it to the best advantage, according to circumstances.–G. T. Beauregard, General.”

The President sends it to the Secretary of War with this indorsement: “On each occasion, when this officer has been sent with his command to distant service, serious calamity to Alabama has followed. It is desirable to know what disposition Gen. Beauregard proposes to make of this force.–J. D.”

We have nothing further from Wilmington. Bad enough.

Sherman is said to be marching on Charleston. Bad enough, too!

Our papers have glowing accounts of the good treatment the citizens of Savannah received from the enemy.

Mr. Foote has arrived in the city–and it is said he will take his seat in Congress to-day.

Gen. Whiting and Col. Lamb were taken at Fort Fisher– both wounded, it is said–and 1000 of the garrison.

Mr. Peck paid back to the clerks to-day the unexpended balance of their contributions for supplies, etc. The money is not worth half its value some months ago. But Mr. P. secured ten barrels of flour for himself and as many more for the Assistant Secretary, Mr. Kean, etc. etc. [continue reading…]

Thursday, 19th–There is nothing new. We are still on picket on the main road to Beaufort.

Jan. 1, 1865—Snow! Snow! Preach four times in the cabins of my Regiment.

Jan. 2—Spend day with my brother Allen. Prayer-meeting nearly every night. Build stable for pony.

Jan. 17—Meet Chaplains in Tabb Street Presbyterian Church, Petersburg.

Jan. 18—Go to Richmond. Spend night with my father-in-law. Meet Mr. Mullins of Henry county, Va.

Jan. 19—Hear Dr. W. A. Smith on “Oath” in First Baptist Church.

CAMP FOURTH NORTH CAROLINA REGIMENT,
NEAR PETERSBURG, January 18, 1865.

Dear Sister:
I send by the boy Church, a pair of shoes, a pair of socks. Brother can have the shoes fixed up and wear them. I guess they will fit him. I never expect to wear them again. The socks only need a little darning to make them serviceable. I shall let you know when I shall need any more. The book I send is a pretty story of the present war. Everything seems to be unusually quiet. I understand picket firing has been stopped on the lines. We haven’t heard any for several days, neither have we heard any cannonading. The peace question is all the excitement in camp now. From what I saw in the “Examiner” this morning I think myself there is something in the wind. I do hope peace will be made before spring. The men are getting very discouraged, and to tell the truth, they have cause to be. Some of our regiment was down on the lines Sunday, and they say the troops have not had any meat for five days. If the men are not fed they will not stay with the army. They are deserting from the lines every night, and going to the Yankees. Don’t send me anything else that you will have to buy, or need before the end of the year. We expect to go on picket this coming Sunday, to be gone a week. My love to all.

Your devoted brother,
WALTER.

Letters from two brothers who served in the 4th North Carolina Infantry during the Civil War are available in a number of sources online.  Unfortunately, the brothers are misidentified in some places as Walter Lee and George Lee when their names were actually Walter Battle and George Battle. See The Battle Brothers for more information on the misidentification.

18th. Wednesday. The glorious news of the fall of Fort Fisher on Sunday, the 15th. Another officers’ meeting. Plan of history submitted–descriptive. The same committee continued for general supervision and compilation.

January 18th.–Cloudy and cool. Cannon heard down the river.

No war news. But blockade-running at Wilmington has ceased; and common calico, now at $25 per yard, will soon be $50.

The stupor in official circles continues, and seems likely to continue.

A secret detective told the Assistant Secretary, yesterday, that a certain member of Congress was uttering treasonable language; and, for his pains, was told that matters of that sort (pertaining to members of Congress) did not fall within his (detective’s) jurisdiction. It is the policy now not to agitate the matter of disloyalty, but rather to wink at it, and let it die out–if it will; if it won’t, I suppose the government must take its chances, whatever they may be.

Breckinridge, it is now said, will not be Secretary of War: the position which Mr. Seddon is willing to abandon, cannot be desirable. And Northrop, Commissary-General, is still held by the President, contrary to the wishes of the whole Confederacy.

Flour is $1250 per barrel, to-day.

A detective reports that one of the committee (Mr. Mc ––?) selected by Mr. Secretary Seddon to hunt up flour for Gen. Lee’s army, has a large number of barrels secreted in his own dwelling! But they must not be touched.

Gen. Lee writes that he thinks the crisis (starvation in the army) past. Good.

In South Carolina we hear of public meetings of submission, etc.

Wednesday, 18th–The weather is very pleasant. We are still on duty guarding the main road to Beaufort. The trains have all gone in for supplies. All is quiet in front. This low country, before the war, was planted to cotton, the planters living in town while their plantations were managed by overseers and worked by slaves brought down from the border states. We can see rows of the vacant negro huts on these large plantations, set upon blocks so as to keep the floors dry. The negroes are all gone, being employed in the armies of both sections.^[1]

[1] When I think of the vacant plantations I saw all through the South, when I recall the hardships of the negroes, and the different modes of punishment inflicted upon the slaves, all with the consent of the Southern people, then I can understand how they could be so cruel in their treatment of the Union prisoners of war. They put them in awful prison pens and starved them to death without a successful protest from the better class of the people of the South. The guards of these prisons had lived all their lives witnessing the cruel tortures of slaves; they had become hardened and thus had no mercy on an enemy when in their power. Many an Andersonvllle prisoner was shot down just for getting too close to an imaginary dead-line when suffering from thirst and trying to get a drink of water.

Not all Southerners were so cruel, for I lived in the same house with an ex-Confederate soldier from Georgia, when in southern Florida during the winter of 1911 and know that he had some feeling. He had been guard at Andersonvllle for a short time, and told me that he would have taken water to them by the bucketful, for he could not bear to hear the poor fellows calling for water; but that he did not dare to do it. This man’s name was McCain, and at the time I met him his home was at College Park, Atlanta, Ga.—A. G. D.

17th. Tuesday. Spent the day in camp. Grounds fixed up nicely–are complimented often. Boys take hold well. Non-commissioned officers’ meeting.

January 17th.–Cloudy, and spitting snow.

Mr. Foote’s release from custody has been ordered by Congress.

The news of the fall of Wilmington, and the cessation of importations at that port, falls upon the ears of the community with stunning effect.

Again we have a rumor of the retirement of Mr. Seddon.

There are more rumors of revolution, and even of displacement of the President by Congress, and investiture of Gen. Lee. It is said the President has done something, recently, which Congress will not tolerate. Idle talk!

Mr. Foote, when arrested, was accompanied by his wife, who had a passport to Tennessee. He said to the Provost Marshal, Doggett, Fredericksburg, that he intended to accompany his family, passing through Washington, and to endeavor to negotiate a peace. He deposited a resignation of his seat in Congress with a friend, which he withdrew upon being arrested. He was arrested and detained “until further orders,” by command of the Secretary of War.

Lieut.-Gen. Hood has been relieved, and ordered to report here.

The rumor gains belief that Gen. Breckinridge has been offered the portfolio of the War Department by the President. This may be the act alluded to which Congress will not agree to, perhaps, on the ground that Gen. B. remained in the United States Senate long after secession. The general is understood to be staying at G. A. Myers’s house, which adds strength to the rumor, for Myers has a keen scent for the sources of power and patronage. [continue reading…]