November 1.–The 4th New York Heavy Artillery is stationed at Fort Hamilton, N. Y. harbour. Uncle Edward has invited me down to New York to spend a month! Very opportune! Grandfather says that I can go and Miss Rosewarne is beginning a new dress for me to-day.
October 8.–News came to-day of the death of Lieutenant Hiram Brown. He died of fever at Portsmouth, only little more than a year after he went away.
CANANDAIGUA, September 1.—A party of us went down to the Canandaigua hotel this morning to see President Johnson, General Grant and Admiral Farragut and other dignitaries. The train stopped about half an hour and they all gave brief speeches.
August 12.–Lucilla Field was married in our church to-day to Rev. S. W. Pratt. I always thought she was cut out for a minister’s wife. Jennie Draper cried herself sick because Lucilla, her Sunday School teacher, is going away.
August, 1863.–The U. S. Sanitary Commission has been organised. Canandaigua sent Dr W. Fitch Cheney to Gettysburg with supplies for the sick and wounded and he took seven assistants with him. Home bounty was brought to the tents and put into the hands of the wounded soldiers. A blessed work.
July 26.–Charlie Wheeler was buried with military honors from the Congregational church to-day. Two companies of the 54th New York State National Guard attended the funeral, and the church was packed, galleries and all. It was the saddest funeral and the only one of a soldier that I ever attended. I hope it will be [...]
July 4.–The terrible battle of Gettysburg brings to Canandaigua sad news of our soldier boys of the 126th Regiment. Colonel Sherrill was instantly killed, also Captains Wheeler and Herendeen, Henry Willson and Henry P. Cook. Captain Richardson was wounded.
June 19, 1863, The Charleston Mercury (FOR THE MERCURY.) At 5 o’clock, a.m., June 21, 1863, I was awakened in my bed by the driver, who rushed precipitately in my room, and informed me that two of the enemy’s steamers were in full sight, and would soon by opposite to my landing. I arose hastily, [...]
May.–A number of the teachers and pupils of the Academy have enlisted for the war. Among them E. C. Clarke, H. C. Kirk, A. T. Wilder, Norman K. Martin, T. C. Parkhurst, Mr Gates. They have a tent on the square and are enlisting men in Canandaigua and vicinity for the 4th N. Y. Heavy [...]
February. – The members of our society sympathized with General McClellan when he was criticised by some and we wrote him the following letter: “Canandaigua, Feb. 13, 1863. . “Maj. Gen. Geo. McClellan: “Will you pardon any seeming impropriety in our addressing you, and attribute it to the impulsive love and admiration of hearts which [...]
January 13.–P. T. Barnum delivered his lecture on ” The Art of Money Getting” in Bemis Hall this evening for the benefit of the Ladies Aid Society, which is working for the soldiers. We girls went and enjoyed it.
January.–Grandmother went to Aunt Mary Carr’s to tea to-night, very much to our surprise, for she seldom goes anywhere. Anna said she was going to keep house exactly as Grandmother did, so after supper she took a little hot water in a basin on a tray and got the tea-towels and washed the silver and [...]
December.–Hon. William H. Lamport went down to Virginia to see his son and found that he had just died in the hospital from measles and pneumonia. Their only son, only eighteen years old!
November 21.–This is my twentieth birthday. Anna wanted to write a poem for the occasion and this morning she handed me what she called “An effort.” She said she wrestled with it all night long and could not sleep and this was the result: “One hundred years from now, Carrie, dear, In all probability you’ll [...]
September 22.–I read aloud to Grandfather this evening the Emancipation Proclamation issued as a war measure by President Lincoln, to take effect January 1, liberating over three million slaves. He recommends to all thus set free, to labor faithfully for reasonable wages and to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense, and he invokes [...]
September.–Edgar A. Griswold of Naples is recruiting a company here for the 148th Regiment, of which he is captain. Hiram P. Brown, Henry S. Murray and Charles H. Paddock are officers in the company. Dr Elnathan W. Simmons is surgeon.
September 13.–Darius Sackett was wounded by a musket shot in the leg, at Maryland Heights, Va., and in consequence is discharged from the service.
August.–The New York State S. S.1 convention is convened here and the meetings are most interesting. They were held in our church and lasted three days. A Mr Hart, from New York, led the singing and Mr Ralph Wells was Moderator. Mr Noah T. Clarke was in his element all through the meetings. Mr Pardee [...]
August 20. – The 126th Regiment, just organized, was mustered into service at Camp Swift, Geneva. Those that I know who belong to it are Colonel E. S. Sherrill, Lieutenant Colonel James M. Bull, Captain Charles A. Richardson, Captain Charles M. Wheeler, Captain Ten Eyck Munson, Captain Orin G. Herendeen, Surgeon Dr Charles S. Hoyt, [...]
July, 1862.–The President has called for 300,000 more brave men to fill up the ranks of the fallen. We hear every day of more friends and acquaintances who have volunteered to go.
June. – I visited Eureka Lawrence in Syracuse and we attended commencement at Hamilton College, Clinton, and saw there, James Tunnicliff and Stewart Ellsworth of Penn Yan. I also saw Darius Sackett there among the students and also became acquainted with a very interesting young man from Syracuse, with the classic name of Horace Publius [...]
June.–Anna and I had a serenade last night from the Academy Glee Club, I think, as their voices sounded familiar. We were awakened by the music, about 11 P.M., quite suddenly and I thought I would step across the hall to the front chamber for a match to light the candle. I was only half [...]
June. – There was great excitement in prayer meeting last night, it seemed to Abbie Clark, Mary Field and me on the back seat where we always sit. Several people have asked us why we sit away back there by old Mrs Kinney, but we tell them that she sits on the other side of [...]
June 19.–Our cousin, Ann Eliza Field, was married to-day to George B. Bates at her home on Gibson Street. We went and had an elegant time. Charlie Wheeler made great fun and threw the final shower of rice as they drove away.
March 26. – I have been up at Laura Chapin’s from 10 o’clock in the morning until 10 at night, finishing Jennie Howell’s bed quilt, as she is to be married very soon. Almost all of the girls were there. We finished it at 8 p.m. and when we took it off the frames we [...]