meetings are most interesting. They were held in our church and lasted
three days. A Mr. Hart, from New York, led the singing and Mr. Ralph
Wells was Moderator. Mr. Noah T. Clarke was in his element all through
the meetings. Mr. Pardee gave some fine blackboard exercises. During the
last afternoon Mr. Tousley was wheeled into the church, in his invalid
chair, and said a few words, which thrilled every one. So much
tenderness, mingled with his old time enthusiasm and love for the cause.
It is the last time probably that his voice will ever be heard in
public. They closed the grand meeting with the hymn beginning:
"Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love."
In returning thanks to the people of Canandaigua for their generous
entertainment, Mr. Ralph Wells facetiously said that the cost of the
convention must mean something to Canandaigua people, for the cook in
one home was heard to say, "These religiouses do eat awful!"
_September_ 13.--Darius Sackett was wounded by a musket shot in the leg,
at Maryland Heights, Va., and in consequence is discharged from the
service.
_September._--Edgar A. Griswold of Naples is recruiting a company here
for the 148th Regiment, of which he is captain. Hiram P. Brown, Henry S.
Murray and Charles H. Paddock are officers in the company. Dr. Elnathan
W. Simmons is surgeon.
_September_ 22.--I read aloud to Grandfather this evening the
Emancipation Proclamation issued as a war measure by President Lincoln,
to take effect January 1, liberating over three million slaves. He
recommends to all thus set free, to labor faithfully for reasonable
wages and to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary
self-defense, and he invokes upon this act "the considerate judgment of
mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God."
_November_ 21.--This is my twentieth birthday. Anna wanted to write a
poem for the occasion and this morning she handed me what she called "An
effort." She said she wrestled with it all night long and could not
sleep and this was the result:
"One hundred years from now, Carrie dear,
In all probability you'll not be here;
But we'll all be in the same boat, too,
And there'll be no one left
To say boo hoo!"
Grandfather gave me for a present a set of books called "Irving's
Catechisms on Ancient Greeks and Romans." They are four little books
bound in leather, which were presented to our mother for a prize. It is
thus inscribed on the front page, "Miss Elizabeth Beals at a public
examination of the Female Boarding School in East Bloomfield, October
15, 1825, was judged to excel the school in Reading. In testimony of
which she receives this Premium from her affectionate instructress, S.
Adams."
I cannot imagine Grandmother sending us away to boarding school, but I
suppose she had so many children then, she could spare one or two as
well as not. She says they sent Aunt Ann to Miss Willard's school at
Troy. I received a birthday letter from Mrs. Beaumont to-day. She wants
to know how everything goes at the Seminary and if Anna still occupies
the front seat in the school room most of the time. She says she
supposes she is quite a sedate young lady now but she hopes there is a
whole lot of the old Anna left. I think there is.
_December._--Hon. William H. Lamport went down to Virginia to see his
son and found that he had just died in the hospital from measles and
pneumonia. Their only son, only eighteen years old!
1863
_January._--Grandmother went to Aunt Mary Carr's to tea to-night, very
much to our surprise, for she seldom goes anywhere. Anna said she was
going to keep house exactly as Grandmother did, so after supper she took
a little hot water in a basin on a tray and got the tea-towels and
washed the silver and best china but she let the ivory handles on the
knives and forks get wet, so I presume they will all turn black.
Grandmother never lets her little nice things go out into the kitchen,
so probably that is the reason that everything is forty years old and
yet as good as new. She let us have the Young Ladies' Aid Society here
to supper because I am President. She came into the parlor and looked at
our basket of work, which the elder ladies cut out for us to make for
the soldiers. She had the supper table set the whole length of the
dining room and let us preside at the table. Anna made the girls laugh
so, they could hardly eat, although they said everything was splendid.
They said they never ate better biscuit, preserves, or fruit cake and
the coffee was delicious. After it was over, the "dear little lady" said
she hoped we had a good time. After the girls were gone Grandmother
wanted to look over the garments and see how much we had accomplished
and if we had made them well. Mary Field made a pair of drawers with No.
90 thread. She said she wanted them to look fine and I am sure they did.
Most of us wrote notes and put inside the garments for the soldiers in
the hospitals.
Sarah Gibson Howell has had an answer to her letter. His name is
Foster--a Major. She expects him to come and see her soon.
All the girls wear newspaper bustles to school now and Anna's rattled
to-day and Emma Wheeler heard it and said, "What's the news, Anna?" They
both laughed out loud and found that "the latest news from the front"
was that Miss Morse kept them both after school and they had to copy
Dictionary for an hour. War prices are terrible. I paid $3.50 to-day for
a hoop skirt.
_January_ 13.--P. T. Barnum delivered his lecture on "The Art of Money
Getting" in Bemis Hall this evening for the benefit of the Ladies' Aid
Society, which is working for the soldiers. We girls went and enjoyed
it.
_February._--The members of our society sympathized with General
McClellan when he was criticised by some and we wrote him the following
letter:
"Canandaigua, Feb. 13, 1863.
"Maj. Gen. Geo. McClellan:
"Will you pardon any seeming impropriety in our addressing you, and
attribute it to the impulsive love and admiration of hearts which see in
you, the bravest and noblest defender of our Union. We cannot resist the
impulse to tell you, be our words ever so feeble, how our love and trust
have followed you from Rich Mountain to Antietam, through all slanderous
attacks of traitorous politicians and fanatical defamers--how we have
admired, not less than your calm courage on the battlefield, your lofty
scorn of those who remained at home in the base endeavor to strip from
your brow the hard earned laurels placed there by a grateful country: to
tell further, that in your forced retirement from battlefields of the
Republic's peril, you have 'but changed your country's arms for
more,--your country's heart,'--and to assure you that so long as our
country remains to us a sacred name and our flag a holy emblem, so long
shall we cherish your memory as the defender and protector of both. We
are an association whose object it is to aid, in the only way in which
woman, alas! can aid our brothers in the field. Our sympathies are with
them in the cause for which they have periled all--our hearts are with
them in the prayer, that ere long their beloved commander may be
restored to them, and that once more as of old he may lead them to
victory in the sacred name of the Union and Constitution.
"With united prayers that the Father of all may have you and yours ever
in His holy keeping, we remain your devoted partisans."
Signed by a large number.
The following in reply was addressed to the lady whose name was first
signed to the above:
"New York, Feb. 21, 1863.
Madam--I take great pleasure in acknowledging the receipt of the very
kind letter of the 13th inst., from yourself and your friends. Will you
do me the favor to say to them how much I thank them for it, and that I
am at a loss to express my gratitude for the pleasant and cheering terms
in which it is couched. Such sentiments on the part of those whose
brothers have served with me in the field are more grateful to me than
anything else can be. I feel far more than rewarded by them for all I
have tried to accomplish.--I am, Madam, with the most sincere respect
and friendship, yours very truly,
Geo. B. McClellan."
_May._--A number of the teachers and pupils of the Academy have enlisted
for the war. Among them E. C. Clarke, H. C. Kirk, A. T. Wilder, Norman
K. Martin, T. C. Parkhurst, Mr. Gates. They have a tent on the square
and are enlisting men in Canandaigua and vicinity for the 4th N. Y.
Heavy Artillery. I received a letter from Mr. Noah T. Clarke's mother in
Naples. She had already sent three sons, Bela, William and Joseph, to
the war and she is very sad because her youngest has now enlisted. She
says she feels as did Jacob of old when he said, "I am bereaved of my
children. Joseph is not and Simeon is not and now you will take Benjamin
away." I have heard that she is a beautiful singer but she says she
cannot sing any more until this cruel war is over. I wish that I could
write something to comfort her but I feel as Mrs. Browning puts it: "If
you want a song for your Italy free, let none look at me."
Our society met at Fannie Pierce's this afternoon. Her mother is an
invalid and never gets out at all, but she is very much interested in
the soldiers and in all young people, and loves to have us come in and
see her and we love to go. She enters into the plans of all of us young
girls and has a personal interest in us. We had a very good time
to-night and Laura Chapin was more full of fun than usual. Once there
was silence for a minute or two and some one said, "awful pause." Laura
said, "I guess you would have awful paws if you worked as hard as I do."
We were talking about how many of us girls would be entitled to flag bed
quilts, and according to the rules, they said that, up to date, Abbie
Clark and I were the only ones. The explanation is that Captain George
N. Williams and Lieutenant E. C. Clarke are enlisted in their country's
service. Susie Daggett is Secretary and Treasurer of the Society and she
reported that in one year's time we made in our society 133 pairs of
drawers, 101 shirts, 4 pairs socks for soldiers, and 54 garments for the
families of soldiers.
Abbie Clark and I had our ambrotypes taken to-day for two young braves
who are going to the war. William H. Adams is also commissioned Captain
and is going to the front.
_July_ 4.--The terrible battle of Gettysburg brings to Canandaigua sad
news of our soldier boys of the 126th Regiment. Colonel Sherrill was
instantly killed, also Captains Wheeler and Herendeen, Henry Willson and
Henry P. Cook. Captain Richardson was wounded.
[Illustration: "Abbie Clark and I had our ambrotypes taken to-day",
"Mr. Noah T. Clark's Brother and I"]
_July_ 26.--Charlie Wheeler was buried with military honors from the
Congregational church to-day. Two companies of the 54th New York State
National Guard attended the funeral, and the church was packed,
galleries and all. It was the saddest funeral and the only one of a
soldier that I ever attended. I hope it will be the last. He was killed
at Gettysburg, July 3, by a sharpshooter's bullet. He was a very bright
young man, graduate of Yale college and was practising law. He was
captain of Company K, 126th N. Y. Volunteers. I have copied an extract
from Mr. Morse's lecture, "You and I": "And who has forgotten that
gifted youth, who fell on the memorable field of Gettysburg? To win a
noble name, to save a beloved country, he took his place beneath the
dear old flag, and while cannon thundered and sabers clashed and the
stars of the old Union shone above his head he went down in the shock of
battle and left us desolate, a name to love and a glory to endure. And
as we solemnly know, as by the old charter of liberty we most sacredly
swear, he was truly and faithfully and religiously
Of all our friends the noblest,
The choicest and the purest,
The nearest and the dearest,
In the field at Gettysburg.
Of all the heroes bravest,
Of soul the brightest, whitest,
Of all the warriors greatest,
Shot dead at Gettysburg.
And where the fight was thickest,
And where the smoke was blackest,
And where the fire was hottest,
On the fields of Gettysburg,
There flashed his steel the brightest,
There blazed his eyes the fiercest,
There flowed his blood the reddest
On the field of Gettysburg.
O wailing winds of heaven!
O weeping dew of evening!
O music of the waters
That flow at Gettysburg,
Mourn tenderly the hero,
The rare and glorious hero,
The loved and peerless hero,
Who died at Gettysburg.
His turf shall be the greenest,
His roses bloom the sweetest,
His willow droop the saddest
Of all at Gettysburg.
His memory live the freshest,
His fame be cherished longest,
Of all the holy warriors,
Who fell at Gettysburg.
These were patriots, these were our jewels. When shall we see their like
again? And of every soldier who has fallen in this war his friends may
write just as lovingly as you and I may do of those to whom I pay my
feeble tribute."
_August,_ 1863.--The U. S. Sanitary Commission has been organized.
Canandaigua sent Dr. W. Fitch Cheney to Gettysburg with supplies for the
sick and wounded and he took seven assistants with him. Home bounty was
brought to the tents and put into the hands of the wounded soldiers. A
blessed work.
_August_ 12.--Lucilla Field was married in our church to-day to Rev. S.
W. Pratt. I always thought she was cut out for a minister's wife. Jennie
Draper cried herself sick because Lucilla, her Sunday School teacher, is
going away.
_October_ 8.--News came to-day of the death of Lieutenant Hiram Brown.
He died of fever at Portsmouth, only little more than a year after he
went away.
_November_ 1.--The 4th New York Heavy Artillery is stationed at Fort
Hamilton, N. Y. harbor. Uncle Edward has invited me down to New York to
spend a month! Very opportune! Grandfather says that I can go and Miss
Rosewarne is beginning a new dress for me to-day.
_November_ 6.--We were saddened to-day by news of the death of Augustus
Torrey Wilder in the hospital at Fort Ethan Allen.
_November_ 9.--No. 68 E. 19th Street, New York City. Grandfather and I
came from Canandaigua yesterday. He is at Gramercy Park Hotel. We were
met by a military escort of "one" at Albany and consequently came
through more safely, I suppose. James met us at 42d Street Grand Central
Station. He lives at Uncle Edward's; attends to all of his legal
business and is his confidential clerk. I like it very much here. They
are very stylish and grand but I don't mind that. Aunt Emily is reserved
and dignified but very kind. People do not pour their tea or coffee into
their saucers any more to cool it, but drink it from the cup, and you
must mind and not leave your teaspoon in your cup. I notice everything
and am very particular. Mr. Morris K. Jesup lives right across the
street and I see him every day, as he is a friend of Uncle Edward.
Grandfather has gone back home and left me in charge of friends "a la
militaire" and others.
_November_ 15.--"We" went out to Fort Hamilton to-day and are going to
Blackwell's Island to-morrow and to many other places of interest down
the Bay. Soldiers are everywhere and I feel quite important, walking
around in company with blue coat and brass buttons--very becoming style
of dress for men and the military salute at every turn is what one reads
about.
_Sunday_.--Went to Broadway Tabernacle to church to-day and heard Rev.
Joseph P. Thompson preach. Abbie Clark is visiting her sister, Mrs. Fred
Thompson, and sat a few seats ahead of us in church. She turned around
and saw us. We also saw Henrietta Francis Talcott, who was a "Seminary
girl." She wants me to come to see her in her New York home.
_November_ 19.--We wish we were at Gettysburg to-day to hear President
Lincoln's and Edward Everett's addresses at the dedication of the
National Cemetery. We will read them in to-morrow's papers, but it will
not be like hearing them.
_Author's Note,_ 1911.--Forty-eight years have elapsed since Lincoln's
speech was delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers' Cemetery at
Gettysburg. So eloquent and remarkable was his utterance that I believe
I am correct in stating that every word spoken has now been translated
into all known languages and is regarded as one of the World Classics.
The same may be said of Lincoln's letter to the mother of five sons lost
in battle. I make no apology for inserting in this place both the speech
and the letter. Mr. Whitelaw Reid, the American Ambassador to Great
Britain, in an address on Lincoln delivered at the University of
Birmingham in December, 1910, remarked in reference to this letter,
"What classic author in our common English tongue has surpassed that?"
and next may I ask, "What English or American orator has on a similar
occasion surpassed this address on the battlefield of Gettysburg?"
"Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this
continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a
great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived
and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of
that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final
resting place for those who gave their lives that that nation might
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in
a larger sense we cannot dedicate--we cannot consecrate--we cannot
hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here
have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The
world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here--but it can
never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be
dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have
thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to
the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take
increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full
measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve, that these dead shall
not have died in vain--that this nation under God shall have a new birth
of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people and for the
people, shall not perish from the earth."
It was during the dark days of the war that he wrote this simple letter
of sympathy to a bereaved mother:--
"I have been shown, in the files of the War Department, a statement that
you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of
battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which
should attempt to beguile you from your grief for a loss so overwhelming,
but I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation which may be
found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our
Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave
you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn
pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the
altar of Freedom."
_November_ 21.--Abbie Clark and her cousin Cora came to call and invited
me and her soldier cousin to come to dinner to-night, at Mrs.
Thompson's. He will be here this afternoon and I will give him the
invitation. James is asked for the evening.
_November_ 22.--We had a delightful visit. Mr. Thompson took us up into
his den and showed us curios from all over the world and as many
pictures as we would find in an art gallery.
_Friday_.--Last evening Uncle Edward took a party of us, including Abbie
Clark, to Wallack's Theater to see "Rosedale," which is having a great
run. I enjoyed it and told James it was the best play I ever "heard." He
said I must not say that I "heard" a play. I "saw" it. I stand
corrected.
I told James that I heard of a young girl who went abroad and on her
return some one asked her if she saw King Lear and she said, no, he was
sick all the time she was there! I just loved the play last night and
laughed and cried in turn, it seemed so real. I don't know what
Grandmother will say, but I wrote her about it and said, "When you are
with the Romans, you must do as the Romans do." I presume she will say
"that is not the way you were brought up."
_December_ 7.--The 4th New York Heavy Artillery has orders to move to
Fort Ethan Allen, near Washington, and I have orders to return to
Canandaigua. I have enjoyed the five weeks very much and as "the
soldier" was on parole most of the time I have seen much of interest in
the city. Uncle Edward says that he has lived here forty years but has
never visited some of the places that we have seen, so he told me when I
mentioned climbing to the top of Trinity steeple.
Canandaigua, _December_ 8.--Home again. I had military attendance as far
as Paterson, N. J., and came the rest of the way with strangers. Not
caring to talk I liked it just as well. When I said good bye I could not
help wondering whether it was for years, or forever. This cruel war is
terrible and precious lives are being sacrificed and hearts broken every
day. What is to be the result? We can only trust and wait.
_Christmas Eve,_ 1863.--Sarah Gibson Howell was married to Major Foster
this evening. She invited all the society and many others. It was a
beautiful wedding and we all enjoyed it. Some time ago I asked her to
write in my album and she sewed a lock of her black curling hair on the
page and in the center of it wrote, "Forget not Gippie."
_December_ 31.--Our brother John was married in Boston to-day to Laura
Arnold, a lovely girl.
1864
_April_ 1.--Grandfather had decided to go to New York to attend the fair
given by the Sanitary Commission, and he is taking two immense books,
which are more than one hundred years old, to present to the Commission,
for the benefit of the war fund.
_April_ 18.--Grandfather returned home to-day, unexpectedly to us. I
knew he was sick when I met him at the door. He had traveled all night
alone from New York, although he said that a stranger, a fellow
passenger, from Ann Arbor, Mich., on the train noticed that he was
suffering and was very kind to him. He said he fell in his room at
Gramercy Park Hotel in the night, and his knee was very painful. We sent
for old Dr. Cheney and he said the hurt was a serious one and needed
most careful attention. I was invited to a spelling school at Abbie
Clark's in the evening and Grandmother said that she and Anna would take
care of Grandfather till I got back, and then I could sit up by him the
rest of the night. We spelled down and had quite a merry time. Major C.
S. Aldrich had escaped from prison and was there. He came home with me,
as my soldier is down in Virginia.
_April_ 19.--Grandfather is much worse. He was delirious all night. We
have sent for Dr. Rosewarne in counsel and Mrs. Lightfoote has come to
stay with us all the time and we have sent for Aunt Glorianna.
_April_ 20.--Grandfather dictated a letter to-night to a friend of his
in New York. After I had finished he asked me if I had mended his
gloves. I said no, but I would have them ready when he wanted them. Dear
Grandfather! he looks so sick I fear he will never wear his gloves
again.