SATURDAY 8
Left the office today at 12 and went down to the Navy Yard with E P and Capt Welling, saw all the sights there. Went on board the “Freeborn” and saw the effect of the shot &c, she was in four engagements within a week. Capt Ward is evidently a “fighting Cock,” had attended all the “balls” so far. Came home at 3 o’clock. At 5 went to market and while there one of the most tremendous showers occured that I ever witnessed, lasting about 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.