SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1861.
Pleasant as ever today and the nights are now brilliant with a full moon and clear atmosphere. The Military Band in our vicinity performs almost every night an hour or two, discoursing most splendid music last night. They were Seranading Com Wilkes, the Captor of Slidel & Mason. I did not go out to Church, family went. Both the Lincoln boys were here this afternoon looking over the pictures with Bud & Holly. They are evidently not kept on Sundays with puritan Strictness. They like to come here and feel quite “free and easy” with our boys. Went down town this evening, called at Charleys an hour.
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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.