Diary of Private Daniel L. Ambrose: Saturday, December 20, 1862

This morning we move forward at 9 o'clock, and march briskly all day. By the road-side many a weary, foot-sore soldier falls. We are now in the rear of Jackson, Tennessee, a town on the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, which the rebels, it is said, are trying to circumvent.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 123

Captain Charles Wright Wills: June 26, 1863

Jackson, Tenn., June 26, 1863.

Such splendid weather — nice, fresh breezes ruffling the leaves on the trees all the day long—and plenty of rain to keep the dust in order. I was up early this morning and the mocking birds were playing a reveille, from whose sweetness bees might make honey. There are hundreds of these birds living in a grove near our headquarters, and I can't find time and ease enough to enjoy their concerts as I want to.

A flag of truce came to our lines yesterday on the Holly Springs road. The general sent me out to receive it. A lieutenant and eight men, all rough, dirty fellows, made the party. They were not very communicative. They brought a small mail and a trifling communication about prisoners. They belonged to Colonel Morton's 2d Tennessee (Rebel) Cavalry, and were sent by General Ruggles. The general has promised to let me take a flag to Okolona. Don't know when I shall go. I do think that General Oglesby is the very ideal of a chivalric, honorable, gallant, modest, high-spirited, dignified, practical, common-sense, gentleman. Nobody can help loving him. He hates a particle of meanness as much as he does a bushel. If we were only doing something more active I should be perfectly happy. As it is, I think seriously of asking to be sent back to my regiment. The general will not be able for any more field work, and I hardly think it right manly in me to stay back here with a railroad guard, when there is so much to be done in front, and I am so strong and able to bear the field duty. You should hear the general talk. There is such a big rolling river of fun and humor in his conversation. Such a hearty honest laugh; I know his heart is big enough to hold a regiment. I believe he thinks as much of the old 8th as of his family. When he has been speaking of the gallant conduct of the 8th at Donaldson and Shiloh, I have seen his face flush up and it seemed as though his heart jumped up to his throat. I was over to the negro camps yesterday and have seen a good deal of them since I last wrote you. An honest confession is good for the soul. I never thought I would, but I am getting strongly in favor of arming them, and am becoming so blind that I can't see why they will not make soldiers. How queer. A year ago last January I didn't like to hear anything of emancipation. Last fall accepted confiscation of Rebel's negroes quietly. In January took to emancipation readily, and now believe in arming the negroes. The only objection I have to it is a matter of pride. I almost begin to think of applying for a position in a regiment myself. What would you think of it? We had quite an alarm two or three nights since. Nobody hurt, but some Tennesseans badly scared. I guess I will go to Memphis to-morrow to look for a spy who has been along our line, and whom we think is now in Memphis. Well, I must go and see the provost marshal about disposing of some prisoners. First, I'll tell you what three soldiers did the night we had the alarm here. Colonel Mizner, with 1,000 of our cavalry, had been on a scout nine days, and that night we heard that he was within 15 miles of here on his return. We heard of the enemy about 1 a. m. and immediately sent these three men (volunteers for the purpose) to notify Colonel Mizner and have him march all night. They reached the little town, Mt. Pleasant, without incident on the way. There was a lot of guerrillas camped in town that night, and their guard hailed the boys and fired. Our men, only three, charged with a yell and scared the whole party out of town. They couldn't find the colonel and started to return. When two miles on the way back, at a turn in the road, they met Mitchell's Rebel company (60 men). Our boys yelled, “here they are, come on boys,” and charged, firing their revolvers. They brought one man down, and made the next fall back some 200 yards where they commenced forming line. Our fellows then took to the woods, got around them and back to camp at 6:30 a. m.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 183-4

Captain Charles Wright Wills: March 15, 1863

Camp 103d Illinois Infantry, Lagrange, Tenn.,

March 15, 1863.

I have just returned from a walk to and inspection of the cemetery belonging to this nice little town. There, as everywhere, the marks of the “Vandal Yankees” are visible. The fence which formerly enclosed the whole grounds has long since vanished in thin air, after fulfilling its mission, boiling Yankee coffee, and frying Yankee bacon. Many of the enclosures of family grounds have also suffered the same fate, and others are broken down and destroyed. The cemeteries here are full of evergreens, hollies, cedars, and dwarf pines, and rosebushes and flowers of all kinds are arranged in most excellent taste. They pride themselves more on the homes of their dead than on the habitations of the living. I can't help thinking that their dead are the most deserving of our respect, though our soldiers don't waste much respect on either the living or dead chivalries. Many of the graves have ocean shells scattered over them, and on a number were vases in which the friends deposit boquets in the flower season. The vases have suffered some at the hands of the Yankees, and the names of Yanks anxious for notoriety are penciled thickly on the backs of marble grave stones. Quite a variety of flowers can now be found here in bloom. I have on my table some peach blossoms and one apple blossom, the first of the latter I have seen. Some of the early rosebushes are leaved out, and the grass is up enough to make the hillsides look quite springlike. For three or four days we have needed no fire, and my coat now hangs on the forked stick which answers for a hatrack in my tent. We left Jackson the morning of the 11th, all pleased beyond expression, to get away. We were from 8 a. m. until 11 o'clock p. m. coming here, only 55 miles. The engine stalled as many as ten times on up grades, and we would either have to run back to get a fresh start, or wait until a train came along whose engine could help us out. We lay loosely around the depot until daylight and then moved out to our present camp, which is one of the best I have ever seen, a nice, high ridge covered with fine old forest trees. This town has been most shamefully abused since we left here with the Grand Army last December. There are only about three houses which have a vestige of a fence left around them. All the once beautiful evergreens look as though three or four tornadoes had visited them and many of the finest houses have been compelled to pay as tribute to the camp fires, piazzas and weatherboarding. Not a chicken is left to crow or cackle, not a pig to squeal, and only such milch cows as were composed entirely of bone and cuticle. The 7th Cavalry is here, and also the 6th Illinois and 2d Iowa. There is only one other regiment of Infantry, the 46th Ohio. It does the picket duty and we are patroling and guarding the government stores. The duty is rather lighter than it was in Jackson, and more pleasant. We have no ground to complain now, and the paymaster is all we want to make us perfectly happy. Two nights before we left Jackson 23 of our regiment deserted, 17 of whom were out of Company A, one of the Lewistown companies. One was from my company, the first deserter I have had. He was detailed from Company A to my company and was besides the most worthless trifling pup in the army. I am accepting the disgrace of having one of my men desert, decidedly glad to be rid of him. Johnny Wyckoff came down a few days ago and after being in camp a few days came to me and said he had his parents' permission, so I got the colonel to swear him in. We'll make a drummer of him.

I suppose you will have seen in the Register before this reaches you the answer my company made to that Davidson's lie in regard to our vote on the resolutions. I did not see the paper until it was ready to send away. I think copperheadism is not worth quite the premium it was a few months since. These notes from the army should have some weight with the gentlemen that run the copper machine. Do you see how the Southern papers cut the scoundrels? That does me much good, though 'tis mortifying to think we have such dirt-catchers in our State.

Well, we are on the right track now, and a few more weeks and we will be steaming down the Mississippi, I think. Our next move will be Memphis, probably, and then, ho! for Vicksburg! That is rare good news from the Yazoo. I hope Ross has done something there. My health is excellent, 155 pounds of ham and crackers, for that is all I've eaten in four months. One hundred and sixty secesh soldiers lie as closely as they can be packed in this cemetery. Little boards with initials cut on them are all the marks their graves have. Our boys all cut on a large board with full name of regiment, and residence, at the head of their graves. I send you some blossoms from the graveyard.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 161-4

Captain Charles Wright Wills: March 9, 1863

Camp 103d Illinois Infantry, Jackson, Tenn.,

March 9, 1863.

We leave here again in the morning for the Grange. Ordered to report there immediately to relieve a regiment, the 6th Iowa, which is going down the river. Am right glad to be again on the way. Can't think that we will stay there long, though I ought by this time to know that I have no business thinking anything about the matter. The Fulton Democrat came into our camp to-day, and that correspondence you mentioned in your last has raised quite a stir. The writer is of course denounced as a contemptible liar. My boys this evening got up a little paper which will appear in the Register shortly (it goes in the morning by the same person who carries this) and some fifty of them signed it, all there were in camp. My company would riddle that office in a minute if they could get at it. Worked all day yesterday, Sunday, covering and chinking a picket post, and will not get another day's use of it. Have so much to do that I see I will have to stop this letter writing business.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 161

Captain Charles Wright Wills: March 5, 1863

Camp 103d Illinois Infantry, Jackson, Tenn.,

March 5, 1863.

You certainly should not complain of my neglect, in writing no more than once in ten days while we are quartered at such an intolerably stupid place as this, for there really have not been two incidents ocurred worthy of notice, since we pitched our tents on this ground. Never since I first entered the service have I passed two months in which there seems so little worth remembering Nothing but a dull round of picket, fatigue, and camp guard; no alarms and no enemy within a hundred or more miles of us, save “citizen guerrillas,” and they in no force sufficient to scare even a foraging party. In lieu of something real to talk of and speculate about, I give you the following items: There seems this morning to be some movement on foot, though I have not heard a word of the object which has raised such a commotion in our usually quiet military circles. I only know that all the mounted men stationed here have this morning started under command of Colonel Mizner, with an ammunition train and small provision ditto. Also hear that Dodge at Corinth and the command out at Trenton have set all their cavalry in motion. To make the case a little stronger I will add that one of Sullivan's aids galloped into camp half an hour since, and required at short notice the number of rounds of ammunition on hand. Well, I expect that Van Dorn or Morgan is on our side of the Tennessee again. It can't be more than that. I'd give a month's pay to get this regiment into a fight. Don't want it for myself particularly, but think it would do the regiment a great deal of good. The feeling is some better among the men, but there is still much room for improvement. Desertions are not so numerous, but one slips off occasionally. Colonels Kellogg and Babcock were both here a few nights ago. Both in good health, never saw them looking better Don't know that anything of importance was connected with their visit. My own health continues prime. I know that I don't fully appreciate the Lord's goodness to me in granting me such continued excellent health, but I assure you I do feel grateful to the Power that rules that matter, although I am tolerably regular in my habits and intemperate in none, yet I know I am very careless of myself and health in regard to dress, sleeping any and everywhere, etc. General Sullivan will visit our camp at 3 o'clock to-day to look into its sanitary conditions, and inspect our policing. The health of the regiment is much improved. Two months more and we will be veterans. Another of my boys, the second, died in General Hospital at this place yesterday. James Conyers, is his name. Formerly worked for Stipp.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 158-60

Captain Charles Wright Wills: February 25, 1863

Camp 103d Illinois Infantry, Jackson, Tenn.,

February 25, 1863.

I guess it's full two weeks since I wrote you last, excepting a half sheet a few days ago. My reason is that it has been raining ever since, and my tent leaks so that (that's rather a larger story than I think you'll swallow, so I'll not spoil paper by finishing it); but, Scotland, how it does rain here. Commences slowly and gently, comes straight down and continues coming for about 24 hours in the same manner. Mercury at about 35 degrees. Then the wind will commence blowing, cool, cooler, cold. Stop the rain, scatter the clouds, and getting warm again will, in a day or so, gather the moisture from the surface, and probably give us one pleasant day, rarely more. It seems to me there has not been a day this winter when the sun shone, and the air was calm, that I needed a fire, and I remember but one day during which the mercury sunk as low as 10 degrees. We had two nice “falls” of snow, but they found they'd lit in the wrong country and evacuated in quick time. It can't snow here to much advantage, but I am sure the rest of the world could learn from this region on the rain question. Canton is a parlor compared to this town. Part of the town is on rolling ground, but the hillside seems even muddier than the valleys. This town is thrice the size of Canton, and has ten times as many costly dwellings, but the sidewalks and streets will not compare with yours. The arrangements of gardens is passable and much taste is shown in the distribution of evergreens. One gentleman living between our camp and town has 10,000 pines, hollies, cedars, etc., in the grounds surrounding his house. The grounds comprise maybe fifteen acres. I mean he had 10,000 trees, but the Yankees burned the fences around his paradise, and have in various ways managed to destroy a few thousand evergreens A kind of a parody, you understand, on that Bible story of the devil in Eden. Colonel Kellogg is here to-night, but goes to Memphis to-morrow where he will join Colonel Babcock. They may both be here again within a week, but it is not certain. He says we may be thankful we are not in the Yazoo Swamp or at Vicksburg, but two months heavy picketing here have rendered me unable to see it in that light. Our pickets have been fired on twice during the last two days. Nobody hurt, I believe. We have news to-night of General Dodge, of Corinth, capturing some 200 prisoners and a train of wagons at Tuscumbia, Ala. How I do wish we could be sent into that country again. It's worth all the rest of the South that I have seen.. I have 11 negroes in my company now. They do every particle of the dirty work. Two women among them do the washing for the company. Three babies in the lot, all of which have run barefooted all the winter, and though they have also run at the nose, etc., some, seem to be healthy all the time.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 157-8

Captain Charles Wright Wills: January 4, 1863

January 4, 1863.

There I quit, for we received orders to get ready at once to march to Jackson, Tenn. The colonel ordered me to take charge of the train (wagons) and with my company guard it through by the wagon road, while the other nine companies went through by railroad. The regiment got off that evening, but I was delayed until the 31st, when just as I got my company into line to start a couple of the finest houses in town took fire, and burned down. The colonel commanding the 15th Illinois Infantry, which had just arrived, put me under arrest and stationed a guard around my company, but after an hour's detention, my strong protestations against arrest and my arguments in favor of the honorable acquital of my men of the charges, induced him to allow us to proceed on our way. By Lieutenant Mattison's personal smartness the train was taken from the road in the p. m., while I was ahead selecting camping grounds for the night, and I did not get with it for two days, which I traveled alone. The distance is about 90 miles. The first night I stayed at Holly Springs and slept in the bed which General Pemberton, Van Dorn and Lovell of the Rebel Army, and Hamilton, of ours, in turn occupied. 'Twas in the room they occupied for headquarters. Mrs. Stricklin, the lady of the house, was charming. Her husband is a major in the Rebel Army. I ate my New Year's dinner at Dr. Ellis'. He was not at home, but his lady treated me very politely, and I give her credit for having the noblest face I ever saw on woman. She is a sister of Rebel General Hindman. Stayed at a private house at Lagrange that night (Mrs. Cockes) and heard some delightful music made by a daughter. Saw seven mounted Rebels on the 2d, and felt uneasy traveling alone, but got through safe to Bolivar. Here I caught up with my train which I thought was behind. When we started my men were on foot, when I caught up with them at Bolivar, 38 of them were mounted on horses or mules. Stayed at Medon Station last night, and arrived here at 3 this p. m., all safe. I have to go back to Holly Springs to-morrow to testify against the 109th for disloyalty.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 140

Major General Ulysses S. Grant to Mary Frances Grant, August 19, 1862

Corinth, Mississippi,

August 19th, 1862.

Dear Sister:

Julia and the children left here on Saturday last for St. Louis where they will remain on a visit until about the last of the month. At the end of that time they must be some place where the children can go to school. — Mrs. Hillyer has a nice house in the city and is all alone whilst her husband is on my staff, and it may be that she and Julia will keep house together. If they do she would be very much pleased to have you make her a long visit. Julia says that she is satisfied that the best place for the children is in Covington. But there are so many of them that she sometimes feels as if they were not wanted. Their visit down here in Dixie was very pleasant and they were very loth to leave. Things however began to look so threatening that I thought it was best for them to leave. I am now in a situation where it is impossible for me to do more than to protect my long lines of defence. I have the Mississippi to Memphis, the railroad from Columbus to Corinth, from Jackson to Bolivar, from Corinth to Decatur, and the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers to keep open. Guerillas are hovering around in every direction, getting whipped every day some place by some of my command, but keeping us busy. The war is evidently growing oppressive to the Southern people. Their institution¹ are beginning to have ideas of their own; every time an expedition goes out many of them follow in the wake of the army and come into camp. I am using them as teamsters, hospital attendants, company cooks and so forth, thus saving soldiers to carry the musket. I don't know what is to become of these poor people in the end, but it weakens the enemy to take them from them. If the new levies are sent in soon the rebels will have a good time getting in their crops this Fall.

I have abandoned all hope of being able to make a visit home till the close of the war. A few weeks’ recreation would be very grateful however. It is one constant strain now and has been for a year. If I do get through I think I will take a few months of pure and undefiled rest. I stand it well, however, having gained some fifteen pounds in weight since leaving Cairo. Give my love to all at home.

ULYS.

__________

¹ Slaves.

SOURCE: Jesse Grant Cramer, Editor, Letters of Ulysses S. Grant to His Father and His Youngest Sister, 1857-78, p. 87-9

From Below

ST. LOUIS, March 13. – A special to the Democrat from Cairo, March 11th, says a gentleman who left Memphis on Saturday, arrived here this morning and reports that there are no troops at Memphis.  Many persons were leaving the city.  Cotton, sugar and other articles of merchandise were being shipped down the river.  The Policy of burning the city was still being discussed. – Speeches were made every night.  All means were used to check the increasing demoralization and excite a war spirit.

Bragg had come up from Pensacola with 10,000 men.  They were sent to reinforce New Madrid and Island No. 10.

Bragg and Beauregard were at Jackson, Tennessee, constructing fortifications, and all negroes in the country were called to work on them.

Martial law was proclaimed at Memphis on Last Monday for the purpose of checking incendiaries and those contemplating to turn out and fight.

No defensive preparations were being made at Randolph, nor at the strong position of Fort Pillow, but less formidable than Columbus.

The rebels confess that a reduction of this place will give us all the points on the Mississippi.  Their gunboats are all at Island No. 10, carrying rifled 24 and 34 pounders, under Commander Hollins.

A messenger from New Madrid reports all quiet this morning.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 15, 1862, p. 3