TUESDAY 16
This has been quite an exciting day as the military has been moveing all day over the River. The RI Regts with Gov Sprague at the head left their camp and passed through the City and over the long Bridge about 2 o’clock. The 71st and the 2nd N.H.V. followed. The [Union?] Regt also rcd orders at noon and left in two hours for the same destination. I was at the L Bridge with A Tower and E A Dickinson when the four first Regts passed over. A guard only is now left at the camp of the 27th. Was there this evening.
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The three diary manuscript volumes, Washington during the Civil War: The Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, 1861-1865, are available online at The Library of Congress.