July 18th.–After breakfast. Leaving head-quarters, I went across to General Mansfield’s, and was going upstairs, when the General (since killed in battle) himself, a white-headed, grey-bearded, and rather soldierly looking man, dashed out of his room in some excitement, and exclaimed, “Mr. Russell, I fear there is bad news from the front.” “Are they fighting, [...]
July 17th.–I went up to General Scott’s quarters, and saw some of his staff–young men, some of whom knew nothing of soldiers, not even the enforcing of drill–and found them reflecting, doubtless, the shades which cross the mind of the old chief, who was now seeking repose. M’Dowell is to advance to-morrow from Fairfax Court [...]
July 19th. (probably 16th, based on sequence in book and events)–I baffled many curious and civil citizens by breakfasting in my room, where I remained writing till late in the day. In the afternoon I walked to the State House. The hall door was open, but the rooms were closed; and I remained in the [...]
July 15th.–I need not speak much of the events of last night, which were not unimportant, perhaps, to some of the insects which played a leading part in them. The heat was literally overpowering; for in addition to the hot night there was the full power of most irritable boilers close at hand to aggravate [...]
July 14th.–At six o’clock this morning the steamer arrived at the wharf under the walls of Fortress Monroe, which presented a very different appearance from the quiet of its aspect when first I saw it, some months ago. Camps spread around it, the parapets lined with sentries, guns looking out towards the land, lighters and [...]
July 13th.–I have had a long day’s ride through the camps of the various regiments across the Potomac, and at this side of it, which the weather did not render very agreeable to myself or the poor hack that I had hired for the day, till my American Quartermaine gets me a decent mount. I [...]
July 12th.–There are rumours that the Federals, under Brigadier M’Clellan, who have advanced into Western Virginia, have gained some successes; but so far it seems to have no larger dimensions than the onward raid of one clan against another in the Highlands. And whence do rumours come? From Government departments, which, like so many Danaes [...]
July 11th.–The diplomatic circle is so totus teres atque rotundus, that few particles of dirt stick on its periphery from the road over which it travels. The radii are worked from different centres, often far apart, and the tires and naves often fly out in wide divergence; but for all social purposes is a circle, [...]
July 10th.–To-day was spent in a lengthy excursion along the front of the camp in Virginia, round by the chain bridge which crosses the Potomac about four miles from Washington. The Government have been coerced, as they say, by the safety of the Republic, to destroy the liberty of the press, which is guaranteed by [...]
July 9th.–Late last night the President told General Scott to send Captain Taylor back to the Confederate lines, and he was accordingly escorted to Arlington in a carriage, and thence returned without any answer to Mr. Davis’s letter, the nature of which has not transpired. A swarm of newspaper correspondents has settled down upon Washington, [...]
July 8th.–I hired a horse at a livery stable, and rode out to Arlington Heights, at the other side of the Potomac, where the Federal army is encamped, if not on the sacred soil of Virginia, certainly on the soil of the district of Columbia, ceded by that State to Congress for the purposes of [...]
July 7th.–Mr. Bigelow invited me to breakfast, to meet Mr. Senator King, Mr. Olmsted, Mr. Thurlow Weed, a Senator from Missouri, a West Point professor, and others. It was indicative of the serious difficulties which embarrass the action of the Government to hear Mr. Wilson, the Chairman of the Military Committee of the Senate, inveigh [...]
July 6th.–I breakfasted with Mr. Bigelow this morning, to meet General M’Dowell, who commands the army of the Potomac, now so soon to move. He came in without an aide-de-camp, and on foot, from his quarters in the city. He’ is a man about forty years of age, square and powerfully built, but with rather [...]
July 5th.–As the young gentleman of colour, to whom I had given egregious ransom as well as an advance of wages, did not appear this morning, I was, after an abortive attempt to boil water for coffee and to get a piece of toast, compelled to go in next door, and avail myself of the [...]
July 4th.–”Independence Day.” Fortunate to escape this great national festival in the large cities of the Union where it is celebrated with many days before and after of surplus rejoicing, by fireworks and an incessant fusillade in the streets, I was, nevertheless, subjected to the small ebullition of the Washington juveniles, to bell-ringing and discharges [...]
July 3rd.–Up early, breakfasted at five a.m., and left my hospitable host’s roof, on my way to Washington. The ferry-boat, which is a long way off, starts for the train at seven o’clock; and so bad are the roads, I nearly missed it. On hurrying to secure my place in the train, I said to [...]
The Hudson.–Military school at West Point.–Return to New York.–Altered appearance of the city.–Misery and suffering.–Altered state of public opinion, as to the Union and towards Great Britain. July 2nd.–At early dawn this morning, looking out of the sleeping car, I saw through the mist a broad, placid river on the right, and on the left [...]
At eight o’clock on the morning of the 27th I left Chicago for Niagara, which was so temptingly near that I resolved to make a detour by that route to New York. The line from the city which I took skirts the southern extremity of Lake Michigan for many miles, and leaving its borders at [...]
I shall here briefly recapitulate what has occurred since the last mention of political events. In the first place the South has been developing every day greater energy in widening the breach between it and the North, and preparing to fill it with dead; and the North, so far as I can judge, has been [...]
June 23rd.–The latest information which I received to-day is of a nature to hasten my departure for Washington; it can no longer be doubted that a battle between the two armies assembled in the neighbourhood of the capital is imminent. The vague hope which from time to time I have entertained of being able to [...]
June 22nd. An active man would soon go mad if he were confined in Cairo. A mudbank stretching along the course of a muddy river is not attractive to a pedestrian; and, as is the case in most of the Southern cities, there is no place round Cairo where a man can stretch his legs, [...]
June 21st. Verily I would be sooner in the Coptic Cairo, narrow streeted, dark bazaared, many flied, much vexed by donkeys and by overland route passengers, than the horrid tongue of land which licks the muddy margin of the Ohio and the Mississippi. The thermometer at 100 ° in the shade before noon indicates nowhere [...]
“Never did a people enter on a war so utterly destitute of any reason for waging it, or of the means of bringing it to a successful termination against internal enemies.” June 20th.–When I awoke this morning and, gazing out of my little window on the regiments parading on the level below me, after an [...]
June 19th. It is probable the landlord of the Gayoso House was a strong Secessionist, and resolved, therefore, to make the most out of a neutral customer like myself–certainly Herodotus would have been astonished if he were called upon to pay the little bill which was presented to me in the modern Memphis; and had [...]
Camp Randolph–Cannon practice–Volunteers–”Dixie “–Forced return from the South–Apathy of the North–General retrospect of politics–Energy and earnestness of the South–Fire-arms– Position of Great Britain towards the belligerents–Feeling towards the Old Country. June 18th. On looking out of my cabin window this morning I found the steamer fast alongside a small wharf, above which rose, to the [...]