You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October, 2007.
Parades and reviews offered units a formal opportunity to display their abilities, and they usually engendered patriotism and pride. A sergeant in the 105th Illinois wrote his sister of a recent parade.
“It was a fine sight to see them all dressed in clean uniforms and bright arms marching to the music of four splendid brass bands . . . Oh! who would not be a soldier. I would sell a small farm to become a soldier if I could not be one any other way.”
Cited in Soldiers Blue and Gray, Robertson: p. 52.
Details from authentic soldier’s letter:
Camp griffin Virginia Oct 26th 1861
Dear Parents tis sum cold hear now but it aint so cold as it has ben. Night before last there was the largest frost that I ever see in Brandon at this time of the year. It rains here every other day about and then it is cold .
Today is a division Review of 30 thousand men and yestaday was a Breagod ( Brigade) Drill and the day before was a General review but today I got out of it for I am on Picket Guard three miles from camp, and I can hear this very minute the Rebels Drums and guns too… they don’t say eney mor about the war hear than they do up there. If they say eney thing it is how long is it before I can fight the dam Rebbels and that is my mind to. But we will give them fights bfore long to and you will hear the guns roar up there to and they will be another Bulls run but the Bulls will run the other way… Tell mother not to fret about me for I am as safe as a mouse in the mill. Take all the comfort she can to… to have a dance this winter for Abe to and dance like the devil..
No more at present,
Yours John W Pitridge
Note: John W. Pitridge, U.S. Army Co. H. 5th Regiment Vermont Volunteer Infantry
Massachusetts soldier M.O. Abbott.
Camp Slough / Alexandria Va.,
October 1862,
letter reads in part:
Our ranks are not church going men and care little for the gospel ordinances or precepts. the majority seem to take a growing pleasure for more open and dangerous paths of sin. There are only 3 or 4 actual drunkards but nine tenth of the whole number were in the habit of using intoxicating drink. Some say they have never been in the habit of drinking at home but they believe it necessary here for the preservation of health. I cannot take their word as proof of their previous abstinence, The plea that it is needful for health is in most cases a false one and is simply made an excuse to check the stings of conscience. I have noticed that those who drunk the most are the oftenest of the sick list. The Officers of the regiment I believe all use liquor and the privates only imitate their example. Col. Magg. told the regt intemperance and profanity must cease that neither wold be tolerated and he would severely punish those who persisted in these sinful and degrading habits. But of what avail is it while he is guilty of the same crimes the younger portion of the soldiers are more likely to become swearers than drunkards. Conversation carried on with out profanity appears to the inconsiderable and immature mind insipid. I am happy to inform you that there is a bright side to this gloomy picture. A few faithful ones who stand firm in the strength of God. Since we came to Alexandria a prayer meeting has been held in the camp?’
Source: eBay, June 2007
Soldier ID?
Might [very likely] be Moses B. Abbott of the 18th Mass.
A surgeon in the 124th Indiana, William King’s Civil War service was at its most intense during the Atlanta Campaign, when his regiment was almost continuously engaged.
Oct. 17, 1864:
“We have had a lively campaign so far, with short rations and no baggage. We started from Decatur on the 5th of this month and having been going ever since except two days… We were sent with our Brigade to reinforce the garrison at Altoona, but got there just after the fight was over. The fight there was one of the brightest pages in the history of this war. The garrison lost 33 per cent of their whole number. They killed and wounded more than their whole number. We had to take in the wounded and dead rebs for several days after the fight. The rebs have left the railroad here and it is supposed have gone south again… we have been chasing them for ten weeks. We caught up with them near Rome and our Corps was sent after them. We captured two cannon & a lot of butternuts. I dressed the wounds of four that were badly wounded. We had about thirty prisoners all together. These are all we have had the pleasure of seeing yet. They were only a brigade that had been left to match our army…”
“[Stonewall Jackson] places no value on human life, caring for nothing so much as fighting, unless it be praying.”
George E. Pickett, writing to his wife on October 11, 1862
Citation source: The Oxford Dictionary of Civil War Quotations, p. 330.
Scene screenshot from the movie Gods and Generals.
Letter by Frederick J. Scott of the 47th Pennsylvania Infantry, Company E.
10 October 1862
‘Sunday morning. It is all beautiful and with the solemn tones of the church bell breaking on the ear reminds me of those Sabbath mornings years ago when, with a purer heart and happier, I went up to worship with the just. What change time has brought since then! When a land of peace and unity with no sectional strife to override the public trust - no bitter hating between the brothers of the north & south - now a land of civil war of blood shed. Of sectional strife & contention between brothers, which will fight to the death of desolated homes & bereaved parents, of orphans and widows! & Of sorrow and remorse which a generation will not wipe away. We have two months pay due as yet. Use this as you please. I can only regret I have not more. Write soon, yours as ever, Fredrk J. Scott.’
Source: eBay, June 2007
Note:
At the time of writing Scott was with the U.S. Forces, Beaufort; 10th Corps, Dept of the South
Soldier’s identity:
Residence was not listed;
Enlisted on 9/16/1861 as a Corporal.
On 9/16/1861 he mustered into “E” Co. PA 47th Infantry
He died on 2/22/1865 at Danville, NC
He was listed as:
* POW 10/19/1864 Cedar Creek, VA
Promotions:
* 2nd Lieut 3/20/1865 (Not Mustered)
4th PA Infantry
Under Gen Brannan the brigade embarked for Key West on Jan. 27, 1862, and remained there until June, when it moved to Hilton Head, S. C., where it performed picket duty until ordered to join Gen. Brannan’s expedition to open up the St. John’s river. When this was accomplished, it returned to Hilton Head and engaged the enemy at Pocotaligo, where the troops were highly praised for their efficient service.
Stonewall Jackson handled the thought of promotion, or death, equally, as coming from the good hand of God. He wrote the following to his wife Anna.
“I am very thankfull to God who withholds no good thing from me (though) I am so utteryly unworthy and ungrateful for making me a Major General.”
- Jackson to his wife October 7th, 1861
Jackson handled the thought of promotion, or death, equally, as coming from the good hand of God. He wrote the following to his wife Anna.
“I am very thankfull to God who withholds no good thing from me (though) I am so utteryly unworthy and ungrateful for making me a Major General.”
- Jackson to his wife October 7th, 1861
Professor Jackson (1857) on the Virginia Military Institute, from an ambrotype attributed to Samuel Pettigrew: Lexington, VA.
“In October, 1862, Perkins’s company, in connection with Capt. Hayes Blacburn, burned the bridge across Big Harpeth, below Franklin, Tenn., and on the same day attacked and defeated a large foraging party, guarded by about three hundred infantry, killing and wounding a number of the enemy and capturing one Major, two Captains, one Lieutenant, and fifteen men.”
‘Perkins’ is Thomas F. Perkins, Jr., member of Company I, 11th TN Cavalry. He was from Williamson County, TN.
Williamson County Historical Society Journal, #28 (1997)pp. 86. The text was written by J.B. Lindsey in Military Annals of Tennessee: Confederate.
[Company I, 11th TN Cavalry)
Below: Capt. Thomas F. Perkins, Jr., 11th TN Cavalry, Company I. Photo taken of him while a prisoner of war, 1864.
Image credit: The Williamson County Historical Society.
Description of what the bridge looked like?
“The bridge of 1819 stood until burned in 1862. It was a large covered bridge with a strong middle pillar. It was covered and was double, having a partition along its middle course, and was inclosed on its sides and had two open windows on each side.”
- Park Marshall (1928), Bridges of Franklin: p. 107. WCHS Journal, Vol. 28, 1997.
