Sunday morning before breakfast, Tompkins’ Farm, Three Miles from Gauley Bridge, October 27, 1861. Dear Uncle: – It is a bright October morning. Ever since the great storms a month ago, we have had weather almost exactly such as we have at the same season in Ohio – occasional rainy days, but much very fine [...]
Camp Tompkins, October 27, 1861. Dearest : – I have had a week’s work trying twenty cases before a court-martial held in one of the fine parlors of Colonel Tompkins’ country-seat. I have profaned the sacred mansion, and I trust that soon it will be converted into a hospital for our sick. My pertinacity has [...]
Camp Tompkins, October 21, 1861. Monday morning before breakfast. Dearest : – Dr. Clendenin goes home this morning and I got up early to let you know how much I love you. Isn’t this a proof of affection? I dreamed about you last night so pleasantly. The doctor will give you the news. I see [...]
Camp Tompkins, October 19, 1861. Dearest: – I got your letter of last Sunday yesterday. You can’t be happier in reading my letters than I am m reading yours. Very glad our little Ruddy is no worse. Don’t worry about suffering soldiers, and don’t be too ready to give up President Lincoln. More men are [...]
Camp Tompkins, Near Gauley Bridge, October 19, 1861. Dear Uncle: – It is late Saturday night. I am away from my regiment at General Rosecrans’ headquarters and feel lonesome. The weather is warm, threatening rain. We are waiting events, not yet knowing whether we are to stay here or go to some other quarters for [...]
Camp Tompkins, October 18, 1861. Dearest : – Soon after I had sent off my letter yesterday, Mr. Schooley stopped with your bundle and letter. All most acceptable, gloves, etc., particularly. I get all your letters. . . . Don’t worry about the country. Things are slowly working around. For a first campaign by a [...]
Camp Tompkins, Near Gauley Bridge, October 17, 1861. Dearest: – I am practicing law again. My office is pleasantly located in a romantic valley on the premises of Colonel Tompkins of the Rebel army. His mansion is an elegant modern house, and by some strange good luck it has been occupied by his family and [...]
October 17, 1861. Camp Tompkins, near New River, two and one-half miles above Gauley Bridge, at General Rosecrans’ Headquarters. – A threatening morning, a steady rain, fall fashion, in the afternoon. Received a letter by Mr. Schooley, dated 9th, from Lucy. Ruddy had been sick with a chill and Lucy not so well. Dear wife! [...]
Near Gauley Bridge, October 15, 1861. Dear Uncle: – I am practicing law on the circuit, going from camp to camp. Great fun I find it. I am now in General Rosecrans’ headquarters, eight miles from my regiment. This is the spot for grand mountain scenery. New River and Gauley unite here to form the [...]
Camp Tompkins, Gauley Bridge, October 15, 1861. Dear Mother : – You will be pleased to hear that I am here practicing law. The enemy having vanished in one direction and our army having retired to this stronghold in the other, I, yesterday, left my regiment about seven miles up the river and am here [...]
October 14. Camp Tompkins, General Rosecrans’ Headquarters, near Gauley Bridge. – I came down here to hold court today. Left my regiment about eight miles up the pike. Mrs. Tompkins lives here in a fine large white house. Her husband, a graduate of West Point, is a colonel in the secession army. Why devastate the [...]
October 12. At Camp Ewing. – Rode down to Hawk’s Nest with General Schenck and Colonel Scammon and Lieutenant Chesebrough; a most romantic spot. A cliff seven hundred feet perpendicular projects out over New River; a view of New River for a mile or two above and below the cliff, rushing and foaming between the [...]
October 11, Camp Ewing. – Wet, cold. We hear of enemy back at Camp Lookout and rumors of, over New River. On this road are many deserted homes – great Virginia taverns wasted. The people are for the most part a helpless and harmless race. Some Massachusetts people have come in and made pleasant homes. [...]
October 10, Camp Ewing, seven miles above Gauley Bridge. – A pretty day in a pleasant camp, surrounded by mountain scenery. We had a false alarm in Camp Lookout; formed in line of battle. I was at the hospital but rode rapidly up and was on hand before the line was ready. Some men at [...]
Camp Ewing, Mountain Cove, Six Miles Above Gauley Bridge, Wednesday, October 9, 1861. Dearest: – Captain Zimmerman and I have just returned from a long stroll up a most romantic mountain gorge with its rushing mountain stream. A lovely October sun, bright and genial, but not at all oppressive. We found the scattered fragments of [...]
Headquarters 23d Reg’t., O. V. Inf., U. S. A., Mountain Cove, Six Miles Above Gauley Bridge, October 9, 1861. Dear Brother: – We are now near or at the point where an entrenched camp for winter quarters is to be established. It will command the main entrance to the head of the Kanawha Valley, and [...]
Tuesday morning, 6 A. M., October 8. Your election day. Dearest : – This wet dirty letter and its writer have had considerable experience in the last twenty-four hours, and since the above was written. In the first place we have had another bitter storm, and this cold raw morning we shiver unless near the [...]
Camp Lookout, Monday, October 7, 1861. Dearest:—The mails are in order again. Letters will now come promptly. On the day after I wrote you last we got all the back letters – lots of papers and dates up to October 1. One queer thing, a letter from Platt of July 31 and one from Mother [...]
Camp Sewell, October 3, 1861. Dearest: – This is a pleasant morning. I yesterday finished the work of a court-martial here; am now in my own tent with my regiment “at home.” It does seem like home. I have washed and dressed myself, and having nothing to do I hope to be able today to [...]
Up Gauley River, Camp Sewell, October 3, 1861. Dear Uncle: – I should have written you, if I had known where you were. We are in the presence of a large force of the enemy, much stronger than we are, but the mud and floods have pretty much ended this campaign. Both the enemy [...]
Camp Sewell, October 1, 1861. – About a week ago I left Camp Scott, or Cross Lanes, and came over to General Cox’s camp on the top of Sewell Mountain. Our Secesh friends are fortifying in sight. I staid with McCook. General Cox is an even-tempered man of sound judgment, much loved by his men. [...]
Sewell Mountain, September 29, 1861. Dearest L –: – A beautiful bright Sunday morning after a cold, bitter, dismal storm of three days. It finds me in perfect health, although many a poor fellow has succumbed to the weather. The bearer of this goes home sick – a gentlemanly German. I am still living with [...]
Sewell Mountain, General Cox’s Camp, September 27 (Saturday or Friday, I am told), 1861. Dear L –: – We are in the midst of a very cold rain-storm; not farther south than Lexington or Danville and on the top of a high hill or small mountain. Rain for fifteen hours; getting colder and colder, and [...]
Mt. Sewell on Pike from Lewisburg down Gauley And Kanawha Rivers, Thirty Miles From Lewisburg, Camp Sewell, September 25, 1861. Dear L–: – I am now in General Cox’s camp, twenty-five miles from the Carnifax Ferry. The regiment is back about twenty miles. I am here as J. A. [judge-advocate]. Came over yesterday. This camp [...]
September 22. Sunday. – Cold, raw, and damp – probably will rain. I must get two flannel or thick shirts with collars, also one or two pairs of thick gloves.