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Eliza Frances Andrews, The war-time journal of a Georgia girl, 1864-1865, chapter 7 (search)
didn't go without asking father's permission, but it is a surprise that he, who was so devoted to Marse Fred, should be the very first of the house servants to go. Father called up all his servants the other day and told the men that if they would go back to the plantation in Mississippi and work there the rest of the year, he would give them seven dollars a month, besides their food and clothing; but if they chose to remain with him here, he would not be able to pay them wages till after Christmas. They were at liberty, he told them, either to stay with him for the present, on the old terms, or to take their freedom and hire out to somebody else if they preferred; he would give them a home and feed them till they could do better for themselves. In the altered state of his fortunes it will be impossible for him to keep up an establishment of twenty or thirty house servants and children, who are no longer his property. The poor ignorant creatures have such extravagant ideas as to t
Colonel William Preston Johnston, The Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston : His Service in the Armies of the United States, the Republic of Texas, and the Confederate States., Chapter 22: efforts to get arms and troops. (search)
organization of Tennessee troops in 1861, reported, on the 29th of November, that one hundred and twenty-seven companies had been raised under the call of 30,000 men, sixty-five of which were fully organized, and the remainder nearly ready. On Christmas-day he reported that 12,000 or 15,000 men had gone forward under the call. On the same day, Adjutant-General Whitthorne wrote him, estimating that fifty regiments were in the field from Tennessee. This must have included the troops in all quaColumbus. Had the exigency for my call for 50,000 men in September been better comprehended and responded to, our preparations for this great emergency would now be complete. At the close of an important letter, written to the secretary on Christmas-day, General Johnston uses the following language: Efforts have been incessantly made by me for the last four months to augment my force in the different army corps to an adequate degree of strength; but, while the Governors of States have
John Beatty, The Citizen-Soldier; or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, December, 1861. (search)
ginner to build upon. The wind is high and our stove smokes prodigiously. I have been out in the rain endeavoring to turn the pipe, but have not mended the matter at all. The Major insists that it is better to freeze than to be smoked to death, so we shall extinguish the fire and freeze. Adjutant Mitchell has been commissioned captain and assigned to Company C. December, 25 Gave passes to all the boys who desired to leave camp. The Major, Adjutant and I had a right royal Christmas dinner and a pleasant time. A fine fat chicken, fried mush, coffee, peaches and milk, were on the table. The Major is engaged now in heating the second tea-pot of water for punch purposes. His countenance has become quite rosy; this is doubtless the effect of the fire. He has been unusually powerful in argument: but whether his intellect has been stimulated by the fire, the tea, or the punch, we are at this time wholly unable to decide; he certainly handles the tea-pot with consummate ski
John Beatty, The Citizen-Soldier; or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, December, 1862. (search)
y do to singing, they would soon establish a reputation for piety; but, unfortunately for them, after the hymn they generally proceed to swear, instead of prayer, and one is left in doubt as to what home they propose to go to. December, 25 About noon there were several discharges of artillery in our front, and last night occasional shots served as cheerful reminders that the enemy was near. At an expense of one dollar and seventy-five cents, I procured a small turkey and had a Christmas dinner; but it lacked the collaterals, and was a failure. For twenty months now I have been a sojourner in camps, a dweller in tents, going hither and yon, at all hours of the day and night, in all sorts of weather, sleeping for weeks at a stretch without shelter, and yet I have been strong and healthy. How very thankfill I should feel on this Christmas night! There goes the boom of a cannon at the front. December, 26 This morning we started south on the Franklin road. When some
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles. Volume 1., From Moultrie to Sumter. (search)
rpose of taking the women and children and six months supply of provisions to Fort Johnson, opposite Charleston. He was instructed when the secession patrols should ask what this meant, to tell them we were sending off the families of the officers and men to the North because they were in the way. The excuse was plausible, and no one interfered. We were so closely watched that we could make no movement without demands being made as to the reason of it. On the day we left — the day after Christmas--Anderson gave up his own mess, and came to live with me as my guest. In the evening of that day I went to notify the major that tea was ready. Upon going to the parapet for that purpose, I found all the officers there, and noticed something strange in their manner. The problem was solved when Anderson walked up to me and said: Captain, in twenty minutes you will leave this fort with your company for Fort Sumter. The order was startling and unexpected, and I thought of the immediate ho
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles. Volume 1., chapter 12.46 (search)
n it was too late. Calamity then stirred them to an ineffectual resistance, the heroism of which removed the reproach of their early vainglory and apathy. General Johnston never was able to assemble more than 22,000 men at Bowling Green, to confront the 100,000 troops opposed to him on that line. the only battle of note that occurred that fall was at Belmont, opposite Columbus, in which Polk scored a victory over Grant. General Johnston wrote as follows to the Secretary of War, on Christmas day, from Bowling Green: the position of General Zollicoffer on the Cumberland holds in check the meditated invasion and hoped — for revolt in East Tennessee; but I can neither order Zollicoffer to join me here nor withdraw any more force from Columbus without imperiling our communications toward Richmond Battle of Logan's Cross Roads, or Mill Springs (see map, page 388). from a lithograph. or endangering Tennessee and the Mississippi Valley. This I have resolved not to do, but have chos
Heros von Borcke, Memoirs of the Confederate War for Independence, Chapter 18: (search)
affect me long, and my vexed spirit soon yielded to the consolation of an excellent egg-nogg Egg-nogg is an American drink which chiefly comes into notice at Christmas time, and in the good old days scarcely a house in Virginia was without a large bowl of this beverage standing in the hall on Christmas-day from morning till nigChristmas-day from morning till night for all to help themselves at. It consists of eggs beaten up with sugar, milk, and the indispensable ingredient of whisky or brandy. It is very agreeable to the taste, and has the dangerous property of concealing its strength under the guise of an innocent softness of savour, thus exerting its intoxicating influence on the inexon the following day by the happy return of the waggons which had been despatched in charge of couriers to Loudoun County for provisions to furnish forth our Christmas dinner. The presence of some scouting Yankee cavalry on the road had delayed our messengers; but though too late to do honour to the Christian feast, not the less
Heros von Borcke, Memoirs of the Confederate War for Independence, Chapter 24: (search)
eneral Hampton, General Lee, and President Davis, urging me to go on a mission for the Government to England, I at last yielded to their wishes, hoping to be back for the spring campaign. My commanding officer had in the mean time urgently requested that my rank should be raised to that of Colonel, and the day before my departure I had the gratification of receiving my promotion from the hands of the President. After a tedious journey of four days and four nights, I reached Wilmington on Christmas-day; and while the heavy guns were roaring at the first bombardment of Fort Fisher, I ran the blockade in the late Confederate war-steamer Talahassee, arriving in England, after a circuitous route by the West India Islands, in the month of February 1865. There I was saved the grief of being an eyewitness of the rapid collapse of the Confederacy, and the downfall of a just and noble cause. Lee's glorious army is no longer in existence: the brave men who formed it have, after innumerabl
Wiley Britton, Memoirs of the Rebellion on the Border 1863., Chapter 24: (search)
, should the rebel generals concentrate all their troops in Arkansas, to attack General McNeil at Fort Smith. Though the enemy may make a bold demonstration, since he is holding no particular place in Arkansas, yet it is not generally thought, from a survey of the field of operations, that he will at present risk a general engagement with our victorious troops. It is not therefore probable that General Price will be able to fulfill his promise in regard to treating his soldiers with a Christmas dinner from Federal rations at Fort Smith. His troops, instead of being the victorious legions of a hundred battles, have been so often defeated that it is not easy to conceive with what new hope they can be inspired to undertake a vigorous campaign against our soldiers, flushed with a continuous series of successes. An attempt was made on the night of the 28th, by an emissary of the enemy to spike one of the.Twenty-four pounder seige guns mounted at Lunette C. W. Blair. The party was pr
The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South (ed. Alexander Kelly McClure), The First attack on Fort Fisher (search)
, fifty-five wounded, and three hundred made prisoners. The failure to capture Fort Fisher produced keen disappointment, and Admiral Porter's misleading report caused widespread indignation. Experts say, in the light of facts revealed, that the army officers acted wisely in not attacking. It seems to me that the chief cause of our failure may be found in the lack of co-operation with the land forces at the beginning. During the delay caused by the first day's waiting for the fleet at the rendezvous, and the succeeding gale, the Confederates were apprised of the expedition, and took sufficient measures to meet and frustrate it. Wilmington was denuded of troops, and the army was waiting for the fleet off Fort Fisher on the middle of December. At that time the garrison of the fort consisted of only six hundred and sixty-seven men. When Weitzel stood before it on Christmas day, it was nine hundred strong, and at least seven thousand men were within forty-eight hours march of it.
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