July 26,
1862:
Gen. Halleck consents to send Gen. McClellan the 20,000 reinforcements
that Little Mac has requested, but now McClellan asks for 55,000 more troops.
---In General Franz Sigel’s advance, near Madison Court House,
Virginia, the 1st Connecticut Cavalry Regiment skirmishes with Rebel
cavalry under Beverley Robertson, and drives the Rebels from the town.
---In Patten, Missouri, troops
of the 10th Battalion of state militia fight a close-fought skirmish
with about 200 Rebel bushwhackers, or irregular cavalry. The Rebels are beaten and driven off, suffering
25 killed and wounded. The Unionists
incur only 3 men wounded.
---Alexander G. Downing, an infantryman in the 11th Iowa
Infantry Regiment, Army of the Tennessee, writes in his diary about the issuing
and quality of rations:
During this hot weather
the regular army rations are drawn, but the men use very little of the salt
bacon. But the bacon being issued, the company cook takes care of it and now
has a wagon load of it stacked up beside his tent, anyone being permitted to go
and help himself to it. At noon the company cook prepares the bean soup and
cooks the pickled beef, after which he calls out for every man to come and get
his portion. All the other rations are issued every five days, each man
carrying his portion in his haversack. We haven [sic] had no Irish potatoes
issued for eight months now, but fresh beef we draw, sometimes twice a week,
and it is cooked for us by the company cook. The rations are all of good
quality with the exception of crackers, which at times are a little worm-eaten.
---In answer to his family’s inquiries, Oliver Willcox Norton of the 83rd
Pennsylvania Infantry tries to describe to them his feelings and thoughts while
in battle:
At other times I would
have been horror-struck and could not have moved, but then I jumped over dead
men with as little feeling as I would over a log. The feeling that was
uppermost in my mind was a desire to kill as many rebels as I could. The loss
of comrades maddened me, the balls flew past me hissing in the air, they
knocked my guns to splinters, but the closer they came they seemed to make me
more insensible to fear. I had no time to think of anything but my duty to do
all I could to drive back the enemy, and it was not duty that kept me there
either, but a feeling that I had a chance then to help put down secession and a
determination to do my best. My heart was in the fight, and I couldn’t be
anywhere else. I told you it was hard to describe one’s feeling in a battle,
and it is. No one can ever know exactly till he has been through it.
---The Richmond Daily Dispatch publishes this rather dry but
witty discourse on the origins of the Yankee term “skedaddle” (i.e., retreat),
while playing on popular Southern prejudices on the subject of education
amongst the Yankees (which is odd, considering that the literacy rate amongst
Southerners was much lower than amongst Northerners). Notice also the witty allusion to the recent
Union defeats and the now-notorious military euphemism coined by McClellan on
the occasion of his retreat from Richmond:
Origin of the Yankee phrase “Skedaddle.”
A friend of ours says that this phrase, apparently invented
by the Yankees, in a prophetic spirit, to describe their own predestined
performances in that part of the drill which is inaugurated by the command
“right about face,” is certainly derived from “skedase,” the future tense of
the Greek verb “skedonnumi,” signifying “to disperse. ” This verb, in some of
its tenses, is frequently used by Homer to describe that manoeuvre called by
McClellan”a change of base,” or “a strategic movement,” and known by others,
not so conversant in military operations, as “a headlong flight.”
We found some difficulty in
accounting for the manner in which the Yankee soldiers had contrived to pick up
so much Greek; but our classical friend had a solution ready for the occasion.
He thinks the phrase was not invented by the soldiers, but by some wild college
boy, who used it to express the scattering of a company of boys engaged in some
mischievous prank when a professor suddenly appears in their midst. From the
college it passed into multitude and was thus drawn into general use. The
genealogical tree of “skedaddle” is quite respectable, if such be the
proposetus. Whether it be or not, we leave to the consideration of scholars and
antiquaries. The theory has at least the merit of being very ingenious.
---Also posted in
the Daily Dispatch on this date: an
ad offering reward for returnin escaped slaves:
Two hundred dollars reward
The above reward, or a proportionate rate for any of them, will be paid for the apprehension of the following slaves and their confinement in jail so that I get them again, or their delivery to me, at Petersburg or Maiden's Adventure, Powhatan county:
Daniel about 30 years old; black; about 5 feet inches high; no marks recollected.
Charles, about 25 years old; black; about 6 feet high; no marks recollected.
Ned, about 21 years old; black; about 5 feet 8 inches; no marks.
David, about 40 years old; black; about 5 feet 6 inches; no marks.
Ann, about 32 years old; black; about 5 feet 2 inches; no marks.
Eliza, about 14 years old; black.
Matthew, about 25 years old; black; 5 feet 8 inches.
Richard, black; about 5 feet 8 inches; no marks recollected.
Gilbert, black; about 5 feet 6 inches; no marks recollected.
All except two of the above negroes having lived in Surry county, at Hog Island, were removed to Maiden's Adventure, Powhatan county, and are doubtless endeavoring to make their way back to Hog Island, with a view to escaping to the enemy.
Also, Joe, hired at the American Hotel, Richmond. R. Y. Jones.
Petersburg, July 16, 1862. jy 19--1w.
The above reward, or a proportionate rate for any of them, will be paid for the apprehension of the following slaves and their confinement in jail so that I get them again, or their delivery to me, at Petersburg or Maiden's Adventure, Powhatan county:
Daniel about 30 years old; black; about 5 feet inches high; no marks recollected.
Charles, about 25 years old; black; about 6 feet high; no marks recollected.
Ned, about 21 years old; black; about 5 feet 8 inches; no marks.
David, about 40 years old; black; about 5 feet 6 inches; no marks.
Ann, about 32 years old; black; about 5 feet 2 inches; no marks.
Eliza, about 14 years old; black.
Matthew, about 25 years old; black; 5 feet 8 inches.
Richard, black; about 5 feet 8 inches; no marks recollected.
Gilbert, black; about 5 feet 6 inches; no marks recollected.
All except two of the above negroes having lived in Surry county, at Hog Island, were removed to Maiden's Adventure, Powhatan county, and are doubtless endeavoring to make their way back to Hog Island, with a view to escaping to the enemy.
Also, Joe, hired at the American Hotel, Richmond. R. Y. Jones.
Petersburg, July 16, 1862. jy 19--1w.
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