SATURDAY 11
This has been a fine day and the Military have been all alive. Regiments marching, Bands playing and Drums beating, Bugles sounding, and now and then the deep booming of cannon. I was in the office all day, but was writing & reading the news, having not much official business to transact. Attended the parade of the 12th with wife on Franklin Square, then went down to Market with Willie, the black girl carrying the basket. That performance seems to be the height of her ambition. Sent her home with basket full. Went & got Willie a hat.
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.