Posted inUS Civil War

January 25, 1862 – Letter from Camp Griffin

Camp Griffin, VA., Jan. 10, ’62

Owing the almost unbearable inactivity of this army and the bad weather we are now having, there has been nothing of any importance going on, for some time, until last Friday night the 17th instant, when, after tramping around all day through mud of a sufficient depth to cover a small sized dog, we stowed ourselves snugly away in the tents, thinking thereby we would escape the mud for a night at least, and be better able to toil with it the next day.

Our peaceful slumbers and happy thoughts were however, destined to be of short duration. We had just got into a good sound sleep, and were dreaming of the gentle ones we left behind us, when the “Bugle Sounded.” “Boots and Saddles,” it being then near 12 o’clock. Immediately thereafter could be heard the commanding and well-known voices of the Colonel’s and Company Commanders, as they rode up and down the lines, calling for the men to come out. Ten minutes after ‘‘boots and saddles” had been sounded, the assembly call was made, and ten minutes thereafter, the “Cameron Regiment of Dragoons” were all in line, ready, willing, and waiting, for a set to with the Enemy.—In that position we stood fora short time, when an orderly came with a message from the General, telling us to go to our quarters. We had just made a start for the stables, when down came another messenger telling us to stand in line so we stood, (poor deluded creatures) until two o’clock, when we were again ordered in, and to keep our horses all ready, which we did until morning. And thus ended the anticipated fight.

Posted inMaritime & Naval History US Civil War

January 24, 1862 – Men Wanted for the Gun Boats

A gentleman in DeKalb county, Indiana, writes to us that he is ready to serve Uncle Abe by entering the gunboat service, and inquires for the rendezvous. We have had several letters of the same import. In reply, we say that Cairo is the place. If our friends want to serve their country in earnest, let them call at once upon Commodore Foote, at Cairo. They will find him a most estimable man—a gentleman, in every sense of the the term, a son of old Connecticut, who is a stranger to fear, who believes in fighting, who has been under hot fire several times in his life, who is also cool, deliberate, judicious, earnest; whose whole soul is in this war, and who will, provided he can get ordnance and men, force the rebels to make quicker time from Columbus than the chivalric South Carolinians made from Tybee.

Posted inBiographical US Civil War

January 23, 1862 – General Zollicoffer

Portrait of Felix Zollicoffer, standing in uniform

Since the death of this noted rebel leader, some interest is attached to his previous history. From our best sources of information we learn that General Felix K. Zollicoffer (irreverently styled “Snollegoster,” by the Union soldiers,) was of a Swiss family who emigrated to Tennessee some fifty or sixty years ago. Felix was born in Maury County, near Nashville, in 1812; was educated a printer; edited, when twenty-two years of age, the Columbia Observer ; in 1833 was made State Printer, and in 1842 became editor of the Nashville Banner, then the leading Whig paper in the State.

Posted inUS Civil War

January 17, 1862 – Incidents of the Bombardment of Fort Pickens

The following extract is from it letter written by an officer on board the United States steamer Richmond, after the bombardment of Fort Pickens :

I went by invitation of Lieut.—— ,of the Engineers, to visit the fort. We took a circuit first of the covered way, then of the parapet and ramparts. All around the Fort, inside and out, were marks of the enemy’s shot and shell. On the glacis, here and there, were deep groves, ending in a large hole, where the shot had plumped into it, and where there bad been shell which had burst. The hole was a great excavation into which you could have driven an ox cart. Where the projectiles have struck the standing walls they have chipped off patches of the brickwork, (it is a brick and not a stone fort) perhaps eight or ten inches deep, and where they have struck the corners large portions have been removed but in no case has any part of the fortification received an injury tending in the least to weaken it, and this after two days’ heavy firing.

Posted inUS Civil War

January 16, 1862 – A “Model” Secesh Widow

I have on former occasions spoken of the abuse to which the flag of truce, in spite of the utmost vigilance of the officers, was liable. I have an interesting case, and as usual, there is a woman in it illustrating the fact.

Saturday afternoon last, there came from Norfolk, two ladies, direct from Richmond, one of them from Rhode Island, whose identity was established beyond all dispute, and was accompanied by her son, released from imprisonment. The other, by the name of Baxley, was travelling on the usual pass. On the way to Old Point, she made inquiries of Capt. Millward whether she would be subject to an examination at Old Point, and as she was informed that Provost Marshal Davis, about whom she seemed anxious to know as much as possible in advance, would probably act according to circumstances she appeared slightly uneasy.