August 25, 1862

August 25, 1862: On this date, U.S. Sec. of War Edwin Stanton authorizes the recruiting of free men of color for service in the Army. After Gen. Hunter had been told, in the South Carolina coastal theater, to disband the regiment of black troops he had raised, now Gen. Rufus Saxton insists that he must raise 5,000 troops from among the male "contrabands" under Federal control. Stanton finally relents and allows Saxton to recruit these troops.

—Gen. Pope gets wind from his scouts of Jackson’s march around his flank, but is still unclear on where exactly Stonewall is going, nor why. But for some reason, Pope assumes that the whole Confederate army means to march to the Shenandoah Valley, so he does not, as yet, chase after Stonewall.

Federal sentries keep watch at a railroad siding near Manassas

—Sarah Morgan, receives from her sister a detailed account of how their home in Baton Rouge has been looted and pillaged, and most of their worldly goods destroyed. She records her feelings:
Well! I am beggared! Strange to say, I don’t feel it. Perhaps it is the satisfaction of knowing my fate that makes me so cheerful that Mrs. Carter envied my stoicism, while Mrs. Badger felt like beating me because I did not agree that there was no such thing as a gentleman in the Yankee army. I know Major Drum for one, and that Captain Clark must be two, and Mr. Biddle is three, and General Williams —God bless him, wherever he is! for he certainly acted like a Christian. The Yankees boasted loudly that if it had not been for him, the work would have been done long ago. . . .

Forgot to say Miriam recovered my guitar from the Asylum, our large trunk and father’s papers (untouched) from Dr. Enders’s, and with her piano, the two portraits, a few mattresses (all that is left of housekeeping affairs), and father’s law books, carried them out of town. For which I say in all humility, Blessed be God who has spared us so much.