Chapter 1

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Obvious printer's errors have been corrected. Hyphenation and accentuation have been standardised. All other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling has been retained.

DIARY, FROM MARCH 4, 1861, TO NOVEMBER 12, 1862.

by

ADAM GUROWSKI.

Boston: Lee and Shepard, Successors to Phillips, Sampson & Co. 1862.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by Lee and Shepard, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

Dedicated

TO

THE WIDOWED WIVES, THE BEREAVED MOTHERS, SISTERS,

SWEETHEARTS, AND ORPHANS

IN

THE LOYAL STATES.

_On doit a son pays sa fortune, sa vie, mais avant tout la Verite._

In this Diary I recorded what I heard and saw myself, and what I heard from others, on whose veracity I can implicitly rely.

I recorded impressions as immediately as I felt them. A life almost wholly spent in the tempests and among the breakers of our times has taught me that the first impressions are the purest and the best.

If they ever peruse these pages, my friends and acquaintances will find therein what, during these horrible national trials, was a subject of our confidential conversations and discussions, what in letters and by mouth was a subject of repeated forebodings and warnings. Perhaps these pages may in some way explain a phenomenon almost unexampled in history,--that twenty millions of people, brave, highly intelligent, and mastering all the wealth of modern civilization, were, if not virtually overpowered, at least so long kept at bay by about five millions of rebels.

GUROWSKI.

WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER, 1862.

CONTENTS.

MARCH, 1861. 13

Inauguration day -- The message -- Scott watching at the door of the Union -- The Cabinet born -- The Seward and Chase struggle -- The New York radicals triumph -- The treason spreads -- The Cabinet pays old party debts -- The diplomats confounded -- Poor Senators! -- Sumner is like a hare tracked by hounds -- Chase in favor of recognizing the revolted States -- Blunted axes -- Blair demands action, brave fellow! -- The slave-drivers -- The month of March closes -- No foresight! no foresight!

APRIL, 1861. 22

Seward parleying with the rebel commissioners -- Corcoran's dinner -- The crime in full blast! -- 75,000 men called for -- Massachusetts takes the lead -- Baltimore -- Defence of Washington -- Blockade discussed -- France our friend, not England -- Warning to the President -- Virginia secedes -- Lincoln warned again -- Seward says it will all blow over in sixty to ninety days -- Charles F. Adams -- The administration undecided; the people alone inspired -- Slavery must perish! -- The Fabian policy -- The Blairs -- Strange conduct of Scott -- Lord Lyons -- Secret agent to Canada.

MAY, 1861. 37

The administration tossed by expedients -- Seward to Dayton -- Spread-eagleism -- One phasis of the American Union finished -- The fuss about Russell -- Pressure on the administration increases -- Seward, Wickoff, and the Herald -- Lord Lyons menaced with passports -- The splendid Northern army -- The administration not up to the occasion -- The new men -- Andrew, Wadsworth, Boutwell, Noyes, Wade, Trumbull, Walcott, King, Chandler, Wilson -- Lyon jumps over formulas -- Governor Banks needed -- Butler takes Baltimore with two regiments -- News from England -- The "belligerent" question -- Butler and Scott -- Seward and the diplomats -- "What a Merlin!" -- "France not bigger than New York!" -- Virginia invaded -- Murder of Ellsworth -- Harpies at the White House.

JUNE, 1861. 50

Butler emancipates slaves -- The army not organized -- Promenades -- The blockade -- Louis Napoleon -- Scott all in all -- Strategy! -- Gun contracts -- The diplomats -- Masked batteries -- Seward writes for "bunkum" -- Big Bethel -- The Dayton letter -- Instructions to Mr. Adams.

JULY, 1861. 60

The Evening Post -- The message -- The administration caught napping -- McDowell -- Congress slowly feels its way -- Seward's great facility of labor -- Not a Know-Nothing -- Prophesies a speedy end -- Carried away by his imagination -- Says "secession is over" -- Hopeful views -- Politeness of the State department -- Scott carries on the campaign from his sleeping room -- Bull Run -- Rout -- Panic -- "Malediction! Malediction!" -- Not a manly word in Congress! -- Abuse of the soldiers -- McClellan sent for -- Young-blood -- Gen. Wadsworth -- Poor McDowell! -- Scott responsible -- Plan of reorganization -- Let McClellan beware of routine.

AUGUST, 1861. 78

The truth about Bull Run -- The press staggers -- The Blairs alone firm -- Scott's military character -- Seward -- Mr. Lincoln reads the Herald -- The ubiquitous lobbyist -- Intervention -- Congress adjourns -- The administration waits for something to turn up -- Wade -- Lyon is killed -- Russell and his shadow -- The Yankees take the loan -- Bravo, Yankees! -- McClellan works hard -- Prince Napoleon -- Manassas fortifications a humbug -- Mr. Seward improves -- Old Whigism -- McClellan's powers enlarged -- Jeff. Davis makes history -- Fremont emancipates in Missouri -- The Cabinet.

SEPTEMBER, 1861. 92

What will McClellan do? -- Fremont disavowed -- The Blairs not in fault -- Fremont ignorant and a bungler -- Conspiracy to destroy him -- Seward rather on his side -- McClellan's staff -- A Marcy will not do! -- McClellan publishes a slave-catching order -- The people move onward -- Mr. Seward again -- West Point -- The Washington defences -- What a Russian officer thought of them -- Oh, for battles! -- Fremont wishes to attack Memphis; a bold move! -- Seward's influence over Lincoln -- The people for Fremont -- Col. Romanoff's opinion of the generals -- McClellan refuses to move -- Manoeuvrings -- The people uneasy -- The staff -- The Orleans -- Brave boys! -- The Potomac closed -- Oh, poor nation! -- Mexico -- McClellan and Scott.

OCTOBER, 1861. 104

Experiments on the people's life-blood -- McClellan's uniform -- The army fit to move -- The rebels treat us like children -- We lose time -- Everything is defensive -- The starvation theory -- The anaconda -- First interview with McClellan -- Impressions of him -- His distrust of the volunteers -- Not a Napoleon nor a Garibaldi -- Mason and Slidell -- Seward admonishes Adams -- Fremont goes overboard -- The pro-slavery party triumph -- The collateral missions to Europe -- Peace impossible -- Every Southern gentleman is a pirate -- When will we deal blows? -- Inertia! inertia!

NOVEMBER, 1861. 115

Ball's Bluff -- Whitewashing -- "Victoria! Old Scott gone overboard!" -- His fatal influence -- His conceit -- Cameron -- Intervention -- More reviews -- Weed, Everett, Hughes -- Gov. Andrew -- Boutwell -- Mason and Slidell caught -- Lincoln frightened by the South Carolina success -- Waits unnoticed in McClellan's library -- Gen. Thomas -- Traitors and pedants -- The Virginia campaign -- West Point -- McClellan's speciality -- When will they begin to see through him?

DECEMBER, 1861. 129

The message -- Emancipation -- State papers published -- Curtis Noyes -- Greeley not fit for Senator -- Generalship all on the rebel side -- The South and the North -- The sensationists -- The new idol will cost the people their life-blood! -- The Blairs -- Poor Lincoln! -- The Trent affair -- Scott home again -- The war investigation committee -- Mr. Mercier.

JANUARY, 1862. 137

The year 1861 ends badly -- European defenders of slavery -- Secession lies -- Jeremy Diddlers -- Sensation-seekers -- Despotic tendencies -- Atomistic Torquemadas -- Congress chained by formulas -- Burnside's expedition a sign of life -- Will this McClellan ever advance? -- Mr. Adams unhorsed -- He packs his trunks -- Bad blankets -- Austria, Prussia, and Russia -- The West Point nursery -- McClellan a greater mistake than Scott -- Tracks to the White House -- European stories about Mr. Lincoln -- The English ignorami -- The slaveholder a scarcely varnished savage -- Jeff. Davis -- "Beauregard frightens us -- McClellan rocks his baby" -- Fancy army equipment -- McClellan and his chief of staff sick in bed -- "No satirist could invent such things" -- Stanton in the Cabinet -- "This Stanton is the people" -- Fremont -- Weed -- The English will not be humbugged -- Dayton in a fret -- Beaufort -- The investigating committee condemn McClellan -- Lincoln in the clutches of Seward and Blair -- Banks begs for guns and cavalry in vain -- The people will awake! -- The question of race -- Agassiz.

FEBRUARY, 1862. 151

Drifting -- The English blue book -- Lord John could not act differently -- Palmerston the great European fuss-maker -- Mr. Seward's "two pickled rods" for England -- Lord Lyons -- His pathway strewn with broken glass -- Gen. Stone arrested -- Sumner's resolutions infuse a new spirit in the Constitution -- Mr. Seward beyond salvation -- He works to save slavery -- Weed has ruined him -- The New York press -- "Poor Tribune" -- The Evening Post -- The Blairs -- Illusions dispelled -- "All quiet on the Potomac" -- The London papers -- Quill-heroes can be bought for a dinner -- French opinion -- Superhuman efforts to save slavery -- It is doomed! -- "All you worshippers of darkness cannot save it!" -- The Hutchinsons -- Corporal Adams -- Victories in the West -- Stanton the man! -- Strategy (hear!)

MARCH, 1862. 165

The Africo-Americans -- Fremont -- The Orleans -- Confiscation -- American nepotism -- The Merrimac -- Wooden guns -- Oh shame! -- Gen. Wadsworth -- The rats have the best of Stanton -- McClellan goes to Fortress Monroe -- Utter imbecility -- The embarkation -- McClellan a turtle -- He will stick in the marshes -- Louis Napoleon behaves nobly -- So does Mr. Mercier -- Queen Victoria for freedom -- The great strategian -- Senator Sumner and the French minister -- Archbishop Hughes -- His diplomatic activity not worth the postage on his correspondence -- Alberoni-Seward -- Love's labor lost.

APRIL, 1862. 180

Immense power of the President -- Mr. Seward's Egeria -- Programme of peace -- The belligerent question -- Roebucks and Gregories scums -- Running the blockade -- Weed and Seward take clouds for camels -- Uncle Sam's pockets -- Manhood, not money, the sinews of war -- Colonization schemes -- Senator Doolittle -- Coal mine speculation -- Washington too near the seat of war -- Blair demands the return of a fugitive slave woman -- Slavery is Mr. Lincoln's "_mammy_" -- He will not destroy her -- Victories in the West -- The brave navy -- McClellan subsides in mud before Yorktown -- Telegraphs for more men -- God will be tired out! -- Great strength of the people -- Emancipation in the District -- Wade's speech -- He is a monolith -- Chase and Seward -- N. Y. Times -- The Rothschilds -- Army movements and plans.

MAY, 1862. 198

Capture of New Orleans -- The second siege of Troy -- Mr. Seward lights his lantern to search for the Union-saving party -- Subserviency to power -- Vitality of the people -- Yorktown evacuated -- Battle of Williamsburg -- Great bayonet charge! -- Heintzelman and Hooker -- McClellan telegraphs that the enemy outnumber him -- The terrible enemy evacuate Williamsburg -- The track of truth begins to be lost -- Oh Napoleon! -- Oh spirit of Berthier! -- Dayton not in favor -- Events are too rapid for Lincoln -- His integrity -- Too tender of men's feelings -- Halleck -- Ten thousand men disabled by disease -- The Bishop of Orleans -- The rebels retreat without the knowledge of McNapoleon -- Hunter's proclamation -- Too noble for Mr. Lincoln -- McClellan again subsides in mud -- Jackson defeats Banks, who makes a masterly retreat -- Bravo, Banks! -- The aulic council frightened -- Gov. Andrew's letter -- Sigel -- English opinion -- Mr. Mill -- Young Europa -- Young Germany -- Corinth evacuated -- Oh, generalship! -- McDowell grimly persecuted by bad luck.

JUNE, 1862. 218

Diplomatic circulars seasoned by stories -- Battle before Richmond -- Casey's division disgraced -- McClellan afterwards confesses he was misinformed -- Fair Oaks -- "Nobody is hurt, only the bleeding people" -- Fremont disobeys orders -- N. Y. Times, World, and Herald, opinion-poisoning sheets -- Napoleon never visible before nine o'clock in the morning -- Hooker and the other fighters soldered to the mud -- Senator Sumner shows the practical side of his intellect -- "Slavery a big job!" -- McClellan sends for mortars -- Defenders of slavery in Congress worse than the rebels -- Wooden guns and cotton sentries at Corinth -- The navy is glorious -- Brave old Gideon Welles! -- July 4th to be celebrated in Richmond! -- Colonization again -- Justice to France -- New regiments -- The people sublime! -- Congress -- Lincoln visits Scott -- McDowell -- Pope -- Disloyalty in the departments.

JULY, 1862. 233

Intervention -- The cursed fields of the Chickahominy -- Titanic fightings, but no generalship -- McClellan the first to reach James river -- The Orleans leave -- July 4th, the gloomiest since the birth of the republic -- Not reinforcements, but brains, wanted; and brains not transferable! -- The people run to the rescue -- Rebel tactics -- Lincoln does not sacrifice Stanton -- McClellan not the greatest culprit -- Stanton a true statesman -- The President goes to James river -- The Union as it was, a throttling nightmare! -- A man needed! -- Confiscation bill signed -- Congress adjourned -- Mr. Dicey -- Halleck, the American Carnot -- Lincoln tries to neutralize the confiscation bill -- Guerillas spread like locusts.

AUGUST, 1862. 245

Emancipation -- The President's hand falls back -- Weed sent for -- Gen. Wadsworth -- The new levies -- The Africo-Americans not called for -- Let every Northern man be shot rather! -- End of the Peninsula campaign -- Fifty or sixty thousand dead -- Who is responsible? -- The army saved -- Lincoln and McClellan -- The President and the Africo-Americans -- An Eden in Chiriqui -- Greeley -- The old lion begins to awake -- Mr. Lincoln tells stories -- The rebels take the offensive -- European opinion -- McClellan's army landed -- Roebuck -- Halleck -- Butler's mistakes -- Hunter recalled -- Terrible fighting at Manassas -- Pope cuts his way through -- Reinforcements slow incoming -- McClellan reduced in command.

SEPTEMBER, 1862. 258

_Consummatum est!_ -- Will the outraged people avenge itself? -- McClellan satisfies the President -- After a year! -- The truth will be throttled -- Public opinion in Europe begins to abandon us -- The country marching to its tomb -- Hooker, Kearney, Heintzelman, Sigel, brave and true men -- Supremacy of mind over matter -- Stanton the last Roman -- Inauguration of the pretorian regime -- Pope accuses three generals -- Investigation prevented by McClellan -- McDowell sacrificed -- The country inundated with lies -- The demoralized army declares for McClellan -- The pretorians will soon finish with liberty -- Wilkes sent to the West Indian waters -- Russia -- Mediation -- Invasion of Maryland -- Strange story about Stanton -- Richmond never invested -- McClellan in search of the enemy -- Thirty miles in six days -- The telegrams -- Wadsworth -- Capitulation of Harper's Ferry -- Five days' fighting -- Brave Hooker wounded -- No results -- No reports from McClellan -- Tactics of the Maryland campaign -- Nobody hurt in the staff -- Charmed lives -- Wadsworth, Judge Conway, Wade, Boutwell, Andrew -- This most intelligent people become the laughing-stock of the world! -- The proclamation of emancipation -- Seward to the Paisley Association -- Future complications -- If Hooker had not been wounded! -- The military situation -- Sigel persecuted by West Point -- Three cheers for the carriage and six! -- How the great captain was to catch the rebel army -- Interview with the Chicago deputation -- Winter quarters -- The conspiracy against Sigel -- Numbers of the rebel army -- Letters of marque.

OCTOBER, 1862. 288

Costly infatuation -- The do-nothing strategy -- Cavalry on lame horses -- Bayonet charges -- Antietam -- Effect of the Proclamation -- Disasters in the West -- The Abolitionists not originally hostile to McClellan -- Helplessness in the War Department -- Devotedness of the people -- McClellan and the proclamation -- Wilkes -- Colonel Key -- Routine engineers -- Rebel raid into Pennsylvania -- Stanton's sincerity -- Oh, unfighting strategians -- The administration a success -- _De gustibus_ -- Stuart's raid -- West Point -- St. Domingo -- The President's letter to McClellan -- Broad church -- The elections -- The Republican party gone -- The remedy at the polls -- McClellan wants to be relieved -- Mediation -- Compromise -- The rhetors -- The optimists -- The foreigners -- Scott and Buchanan -- Gladstone -- Foreign opinion and action -- Both the extremes to be put down -- Spain -- Fremont's campaign against Jackson -- Seward's circular -- General Scott's gift -- "Oh, could I go to a camp!" -- McClellan crosses the Potomac -- Prays for rain -- Fevers decimate the regiments -- Martindale and Fitz John Porter -- The political balance to be preserved -- New regiments -- O poor country!

NOVEMBER, 1862. 311

Empty rhetoric -- The future dark and terrible -- Wadsworth defeated -- The official bunglers blast everything they touch -- Great and holy day! McClellan gone overboard! -- The planters -- Burnside -- McClellan nominated for President -- Awful events approaching -- Dictatorship dawns on the horizon -- The catastrophe.

DIARY.

MARCH, 1861.

Inauguration day -- The message -- Scott watching at the door of the Union -- The Cabinet born -- The Seward and Chase struggle -- The New York radicals triumph -- The treason spreads -- The Cabinet pays old party debts -- The diplomats confounded -- Poor Senators! -- Sumner is like a hare tracked by hounds -- Chase in favor of recognizing the revolted States -- Blunted axes -- Blair demands action, brave fellow! -- The slave-drivers -- The month of March closes -- No foresight! no foresight!

For the first time in my life I assisted at the simplest and grandest spectacle--the inauguration of a President. Lincoln's message good, according to circumstances, but not conclusive; it is not positive; it discusses questions, but avoids to assert. May his mind not be altogether of the same kind. Events will want and demand more positiveness and action than the message contains assertions. The immense majority around me seems to be satisfied. Well, well; I wait, and prefer to judge and to admire when actions will speak.

I am sure that a great drama will be played, equal to any one known in history, and that the insurrection of the slave-drivers will not end in smoke. So I now decide to keep a diary in my own way. I scarcely know any of those men who are considered as leaders; the more interesting to observe them, to analyze their mettle, their actions. This insurrection may turn very complicated; if so, it must generate more than one revolutionary manifestation. What will be its march--what stages? Curious; perhaps it may turn out more interesting than anything since that great renovation of humanity by the great French Revolution.

The old, brave warrior, Scott, watched at the door of the Union; his shadow made the infamous rats tremble and crawl off, and so Scott transmitted to Lincoln what was and could be saved during the treachery of Buchanan.

By the most propitious accident, I assisted at the throes among which Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet was born. They were very painful, but of the highest interest for me, and I suppose for others. I participated some little therein.

A pledge bound Mr. Lincoln to make Mr. Seward his Secretary of State. The radical and the puritanic elements in the Republican party were terribly scared. His speeches, or rather demeanor and repeated utterances since the opening of the Congress, his influence on Mr. Adams, who, under Seward's inspiration, made his speech _de lana caprina_, and voted for compromises and concessions,--all this spread and fortified the general and firm belief that Mr. Seward was ready to give up many from among the cardinal articles of the Republican creed of which he was one of the most ardent apostles. They, the Republicans, speak of him in a way to remind me of the dictum, "_omnia serviliter pro dominatione_," as they accuse him now of subserviency to the slave power. The radical and puritan Republicans likewise dread him on account of his close intimacy with a Thurlow Weed, a Matteson, and with similar not over-cautious--as they call them--lobbyists.

Some days previous to the inauguration, Mr. Seward brought Mr. Lincoln on the Senate floor, of course on the Republican side; but soon Mr. Seward was busily running among Democrats, begging them to be introduced to Lincoln. It was a saddening, humiliating, and revolting sight for the galleries, where I was. Criminal as is Mason, for a minute I got reconciled to him for the scowl of horror and contempt with which he shook his head at Seward. The whole humiliating proceeding foreshadowed the future policy. Only two or three Democratic Senators were moved by Seward's humble entreaties. The criminal Mason has shown true manhood.

The first attempt of sincere Republicans was to persuade Lincoln to break his connection with Seward. This failed. To neutralize what was considered quickly to become a baneful influence in Mr. Lincoln's councils, the Republicans united on Gov. Chase. This Seward opposed with all his might. Mr. Lincoln wavered, hesitated, and was bending rather towards Mr. Seward. The struggle was terrific, lasted several days, when Chase was finally and triumphantly forced into the Cabinet. It was necessary not to leave him there alone against Seward, and perhaps Bates, the old cunning Whig. Again terrible opposition by Seward, but it was overcome by the radicals in the House, in the Senate, and outside of Congress by such men as Curtis, Noyes, J. S. Wadsworth, Opdyke, Barney, &c., &c., and Blair was brought in. Cameron was variously opposed, but wished to be in by Seward; Welles was from the start considered sound and safe in every respect; Smith was considered a Seward man.