THURSDAY 21
It has been a cold windy day. It snowed some last night, and we are now having about as much Winter as we have had. The indications are now that Fort Sumpter will be evacuated and perhaps the other Forts in the seceded states, and that there will be no War. But in my opinion a peaceable separation will ultimately be brought about (probably with all the Slave States) and two confederacys be formed. Went with Julia (after calling on our neighbor Mr Douglass with my wife) to the Raven Club at Prof Whitakers, heard Doct Chesney discuss the Character of Queen Elizabeth.
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.