Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft.

Monday Oct 5^th 1863

Perhaps I might have made it interesting to have continued my diary. But I have been absent some time since my last date, and important events it is true have occured, great Battles have been fought, and great Victories have been won by our arms. The month of July saw our arms victorious everywhere. Vicksburg & Port Hudson on the Miss River were captured. Over 30,000 prisoners were taken in the first and 7000 in the last place. The Very important Battle of Gettysburge in Penn’a was fought on the 3^rd July where the Rebels were signaly beaten and Gen^l Lee driven back into Virginia. No important Battles since that time in V.A. Gen^ls Meade and Lee have been watching each other since but there has been a good deal of Severe skirmishing on the part of the Cavalry. Our Army of the Potomac is now near Culpepper V.A. Our Pickets and those of the Enemy are within speaking distance of each other. A severe Battle was fought about the 11^th of last month in East Tennessee Betwen the Armies of Gen^l Rosecrans and Gen^l Bragg. We lost 10,000 Men killed & Wounded and were repulsed but not defeated. The object of the Rebels was to take Chattanooga which we still hold. The Armies are now near each other in force, another Battle there is expected soon. In August Gen^l Gilmore at Charlston astonished the World by knocking down the Walls of Fort Sumptor at the distance of 2½ miles and by throwing Shells into the City from a distance of 5 miles. He has now got the whole of Morris Island and is engaged preparing Batteries at Cummings Point from which point to Bombard the City with Effect. He took Fort Wagner (on the Island) after the most tremenduous Bombardment that any Fort ever Experienced. We are now expecting to hear that he has again opened upon Charlston with “Greek fire” Shells. Mr Short the inventer has been down there for some time past filling Shells with it.

My Family has remained in Sag Harbor since they went there in June last year. I was at home in August last and staid two weeks. The weather was extremely hot all the month of August everywhere and I did not enjoy myself so well on that account. I returned to Washington the 18^th of the month. In the months of June and July while the Rebels were in Maryland and P.A. I belonged to the Volunteer Reg^t of the Interior Department and drilled about every other day expecting to be called out into the Rifle Pitts back of the City every day. But the danger passed away after the Battle of Gettysburgh since which there has not been much drilling by the Employees of the Department. Washington is if possible more crowded than it was last year. It is utterly impossible to get a House to live in if one is wanted and a great many are wanted. People have to Board and pay high. Provisions, fuel &c are very dear, best flour $12.00, Butter 35.cts, coffee 40., Sugar 16., potatoes $1.25, peaches $1.00 per peck, Tomatoes $2.00 pr B. Beef 18.cts, Oak wood $9.00 pr cord, Coal $10. pr ton &c &c. In August little Jessie died, the first child of my son Charles & Sallie. She was about 10 months old and a very sweet child. She was much loved by Mr & Mrs Woodward and by us all. Mr W provided rather extravagantly for the funeral, attending to everything himself, the coffin (of the finest Rosewood) cost $45.00. He paid all expenses. It is proposed to have a meeting of all our Brothers and Sisters at Lyons this month. I have had two or three letters upon the subject and my attendance requested. I do not know as I can go. It will take too much time and money. On Saturday last I went down to Alexandria V.A. My good friend Surgeon N S Barnes at the Mansion Hospital insisted upon my staying over night with him in the Hospital. The Mansion Hospital is (or was) a large Hotel. The old Braddock House forms a part of it and in that part I slept. It has been built about 120 years and is still in a good state of preservation. Some of the Stone at the corners were crumbling away or scaling off and with the usual Yankee desire for Relics I brought away some of the pieces. The Streets in Alexandria are Strongly Barricaded with round timbers set in the ground close together and standing about eight feet high with holes for Musketry. I returned to Washington last evening. I visit the Hospitals in the City more or less every week. I go to the Stanton Hospital the most. It is composed [of] Barracks or low wooden buildings on the Square in front of the Douglass Hosp’l. I have taken quite an interest in some of the patients there and visit them frequently, especialy in H W Brown of Lyons and John Peters, both wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville the 3^rd of May last. Brown can just go about on Crutches. Peters has not yet been off his bed, both were wounded in the thigh (compound fracture). Not many live through it. One Rebel Co^l and about forty other rebel prisoners are there. They all receive the same attention which our own soldiers do in every respect (clothing &c).