1862 February 11 Raleigh, Va.

[from the diary of Charles Hay of the 23rd Ohio]


Raleigh, Va., Feb. 11th, 1862.
Took a peep at our town today and like its
looks very well. The houses, generally speaking,
are commodious and comfortable buildings,
but are mostly deserted, but the absence of the
inhabitants we do not regret, as their vacant
dwellings furnish us a good protection from
the pitiless storms, and the inclemencies of the
weather, which many of our volunteers will
have to endure and shiver through beneath
the thin covering of a canvas tent. The
locality is a healthy one, and a change for
the better in the health of the troops is easily
noticeable, since leaving Fayetteville, which place,
from some cause or other, produced Diarrhoea
that curse of the camps, to an alarming extent.
But few families remain here, the bushwhacking
fraternity having “left their country for their
country’s good.” The word bushwhacker is one
of recent origin, and is in common use among
the soldiers to designate a certain class of men
who fire upon our men from some concealed point,
where they cannot be reached, carrying on their
operation somewhat similar to the guerillas of
Mexico, alone or in small squads, prowling the
country where they are acquainted, and when opportunity
offers, deliberately murder men who are as good as
defenseless. If ever men deserved hanging, they
are these bushwhackers. So odious have most
Western Virginians become in the sight of the
Union soldier, that the term bushwhacker is
commonly applied to all citizens. Some
honorable exceptions I will admit there are, but
the term I am quite sure is properly applicable
to a majority, who have by divers acts helped the
secession cause, and impaired the Old Government,
and so soon as our troops enter their neighborhood
and obtain predominance, they flock to Head=
Quarters to “take the oath” which, in nine cases
out of ten is a waste of words, and mere child’s
play, for I consider that a man who once
deliberately raises his hand against the Government
which ^ ‘has’ protected him, and under which he has prospered,
will not be anymore likely to bear allegiance by “taking
an oath” so to do; although an oath is usually binding on a man
who possesses a conscience, but of such a traitor is devoid.

[transcription by Mary Roy Dawson Edwards]

MSS 13925