TUESDAY 9
Rained again all day, and a perfect tempest of wind and rain all last night as well as today. Much anxiety is felt on account of the fleet which for two or three days past has been leaving NY with troops &c for the South. E G Allen of Boston in our Rooms today. Singular man. Many are fearing an attack upon the City now, as it is thought that a War is about commencing. Have been at home all the evening hearing the boys read, and cleaning my “revolver” after they went to bed. It rains yet at 11 o’clock, fair prospect for it tomorrow.
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.