September 5

       There are great successes to our arms in Virginia and I fear great losses. Mrs Irwin our landlady came in after tea to tell us of it a very kind hospitable woman quite a register of family events in the society which surrounds her, but although she narrates well and accurately and takes one through the lives of those she talks of from the cradle to the tomb the perfect ignorance about these people, except from what she says makes one take no sort of interest in them, it is just simply life & death.—Dr Whiteford Smith who is the President of the Colledge up here paid us a visit yesterday morning, and made me feel pleasantly all day. A clever, good, genial man, his only son is now with the Army, and he told us they had felt anxious to get warm clothes for him, and his wife a great contriver, had taken the checked flannel out of a large cloak of his and made some shirts for him, he bought a thick great coat, and intended going to Virginia to see his son and give him these warm clothes. The young man is just 18, and said he wished to take his share in this struggle and not have it said to him when the independance was achieved that he was enjoying what he had not worked for.—

       Dr Smith thinks the war will be a great benefit to the country, enlargement of mind to very ignorant, contracted, country people. The families of soldiers now take news papers, and if they can’t read themselves they get people to read to them, and some of them have learned to read themselves. One woman in his neighborhood whose husband, a hard working man and gone off to the wars, had learnt to write & read writing since her husband left her, and he had, too, learned to read & write that he might write to her, she could read his letters, but no other writing.—Dr S talked in the most charming way of Bulwer’s Novels, he prefers the Caxtons & My Novel to all his other books, and Ducroux, does not like Dickens, thinks his caracters distorted and exagerated , which spoils all the beauties, Thackery he has not read having begun his lectures, with the Yellow Plush Papers.—And could only get through 2 pages. I wish he would come again. The weather now is very charming, heard from John, he had not yet got his orders, was at Mobile when he wrote.—

       We walk every afternoon and get on very comfortably.—

HEAD QUARTERS, ANDERSON’S BRIGADE,
SOUTH SIDE OF POTOMAC, OPPOSITE
BERLIN, LOUDON CO., Sept. 5, 1862.

My Dear Mother:

I guess you are all very anxious about me, that is to know my whereabouts. Since I last wrote you I have been through the most hardships that I ever have before. Today makes eleven successive days that we have been on the march, without resting a day since we left Anderson’s station, the place from which I last wrote you. We are now on the side south of the Potomac, opposite a place called Berlin, where there is some Yankees, don’t know how many. We have our brigade and a tolerable good force of Artillery at this point. What we intend to do or where we are going, it’s impossible to say. The men are all very anxious to drop over into Maryland and I don’t know but what that will be our next move. We have just stopped for the night, after a march of about twenty miles. I’m in a hurry to finish before dark, as we have no candles or lightwood. Mr. Ed Marsh will leave for North Carolina in the morning, he will carry our mail. We haven’t had a chance to send off our mail before, since we waded the Rapidan River. Day before yesterday we marched over the battle ground that Jackson had his last fight on. All of our men had been buried, but the Yankees lay just as they were killed. I never saw such a scene before. I saw just from the road, as I did not go out of my way to see any more. It must have been nearly a thousand. Our wagon actually ran over the dead bodies in the road before they would throw them out, or go around them. The trees were literally shot all to pieces. The wounded Yankees were all over the woods, in squads of a dozen or more, under some shady tree without any quard of any kind to guard them. I recollect one squad on the side of the road with their bush shelter in ten steps of a dead Yankee, that had not been buried and was horribly mangled. I don’t suppose the dead Yankees of that fight will ever be buried. It will be an awful job to those who do it, if it is ever done. There is some five or six of our company that have not come up yet. Blake is among the number. They are not sick, merely broken down. The Second N. C. Regiment haven’t more than half of the men with them now, that they had when they left Richmond. It has been an awfully hard march. Two men died in one day from sun stroke. The weather is not so warm now as some days ago. It takes two or three blankets to keep us warm at night, it is so cool. The days are very warm. I hope to gracious that we will stay here tomorrow and rest a while, it’s a beautiful place on the side of the Blue Ridge. The sun will not strike the ground where our headquarters are during the whole day. I don’t know where to tell you to direct your next letter. Richmond, though, I reckon. Give my love to all the family. Goodbye. I’ll now cook my supper. I’ll have an excellent one tonight, chicken, and sugar and coffee and biscuit.

Yours, etc.,
WALTER.

I bought sugar at 12 1/2c per pound and coffee at 25c pound this morning in a store on our way.

Letters from two brothers who served in the 4th North Carolina Infantry during the Civil War are available in a number of sources online.  Unfortunately, the brothers are misidentified in some places as Walter Lee and George Lee when their names were actually Walter Battle and George Battle. See The Battle Brothers for more information on the misidentification.

5th.–10 o’clock P. M. Have just received an order to cook three days’ rations, and be prepared to move at a moment’s notice. I do not know where we go, but presume into Maryland, to resist the advance of Lee and Jackson, who we hear are crossing at Harper’s Ferry and pushing towards Frederick, and perhaps towards Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. If they have crossed with their hundred thousand men, and we cannot now, with our large force, hem them in and capture them, we deserve to be beaten. Will General McClellan let us take them, if we can?

The interchange of letters between Miss Wormeley and G[eorgeanna] ended in an agreement that they should join hands again for hospital work at Portsmouth Grove, and as G. made bold to propose… Jane and Sarah Woolsey as co-laborers, all three of them were given the chance they coveted. Miss Wormeley’s plan for organizing will give you an idea of … [their] duties …..

Miss Wormeley to Georgeanna Woolsey

NEWPORT, Sept, 5th, ’62.

My dear Georgy: I found the new surgeon inclined to one woman for each ward (twenty-eight wards or barracks, of sixty men in each). I hunted him out of that idea however. Everything in the domestic management of the hospital being left to me, I shall gently avail myself of the courtesy. Now then for your advice. My ideas are these. Please give your decided opinion on them. To give five wards, sixty beds to each ward, to the superintendence of five friends–you, your sister, cousin, H. Whetten, and a lady here whom I esteem and consider efficient. Under these I should put one, two, or three women nurses, as occasion may require. These five ladies would be responsible for everything connected with their wards, in general.

You know what general supervision means,–cleanliness, beds, linen, due washing thereof, etc., etc., in all of which the women under you should do the actual work whilst you see that they do it. . . . I want to have the men intelligently looked after, as only a lady can. I should therefore wish that the ladies should go round with the surgeons invariably–to make short notes of each patient’s treatment, medicine, and diet. Medicines I should want her to make sure were properly and timely given. The special diet lists ordered by the surgeon I should wish to be handed in to me as soon as practicable. I shall put a special diet kitchen at each end of the Barrack St. with a female cook in each, whom I shall attend to myself. . . . [continue reading…]

September 4th.

I hear to-day that the Brunots have returned to Baton Rouge, determined to await the grand finale there. They, and two other families, alone remain. With these exceptions, and a few Dutch and Irish who cannot leave, the town is perfectly deserted by all except the Confederate soldiers. I wish I was with them! If all chance of finding lodgings here is lost, and mother remains with Lilly, as she sometimes seems more than half inclined, and Miriam goes to Linwood, as she frequently threatens, I believe I will take a notion, too, and go to Mrs. Brunt! I would rather be there, in all the uncertainty, expecting to be shelled or burnt out every hour, than here. Ouf! what a country! Next time I go shopping, I mean to ask some clerk, out of curiosity, what they do sell in Clinton. The following is a list of a few of the articles that shopkeepers actually laugh at you if you ask for: Glasses, flour, soap, starch, coffee, candles, matches, shoes, combs, guitar-strings, bird-seed, – in short, everything that I have heretofore considered as necessary to existence. If any one had told me I could have lived off of cornbread, a few months ago, I would have been incredulous; now I believe it, and return an inward grace for the blessing at every mouthful. I have not tasted a piece of wheatbread since I left home, and shall hardly taste it again until the war is over.

I do not like this small burg. It is very straggling and pretty, but I would rather not inhabit it. We are as well known here as though we carried our cards on our faces, and it is peculiarly disagreeable to me to overhear myself spoken about, by people I don’t know, as “There goes Miss Morgan,” as that young man, for instance, remarked this morning to a crowd, just as I passed. It is not polite, to say the least.

Will Carter was here this morning and told me he saw Theodore Pinckney in the streets. I suppose he is on his way home, and think he will be a little disappointed in not finding us at Linwood as he expects, and still more so to hear he passed through the very town where we were staying, without knowing it.

Thursday, 4th–Companies E and K went out on railroad guard at the deep cut, to relieve Companies C and H. We are guarding the road for a distance of seven miles. We have some very strict orders on guard; every man has to be on guard all the time, as the rebels may come out of the brush at any moment, and if we should be caught napping, some of us would surely be killed.

Thursday, 4th. Read some in “Othello.” Enjoyed some parts much. News came that Jackson had been taken with 20,000 men. Proved a lie. Tried to write a decently neat letter to Ella Clark, didn’t succeed very well. Didn’t finish in time for the evening mail. A good letter came from Fannie–a little behind time. Enjoyed it all. Read the latest Cleveland papers. News of the morning proved entirely false and we the ones whipped.

Thursday, 4th.—Marched to Paris to-day, through the most beautiful country I ever saw; all covered over with blue grass. Road, with one little deviation, to cross a creek, is perfectly straight for sixteen miles.

(Note: picture is of an unidentified Confederate soldier.)

SEPTEMBER 4th.—The enemy’s loss in the series of battles, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, is estimated at 30,000. Where is the braggart Pope now? Disgraced eternally, deprived of his command by his own government, and sent to Minnesota to fight the Indians! Savage in his nature, he is only fit to fight with savages!

4th.—Our victory at Manassas complete; the fight lasted four days. General Kearney was killed in a cavalry fight at Chantilly. Beautiful Chantilly has become a glorious battle-field. The splendid trees and other lovely surroundings all gone; but it is classic ground from this time. In those fights I had eight nephews! Are they all safe? I have heard from two, who fought gallantly, and are unscathed. It is said that our army is to go to Maryland.

4th.–”All quiet on the Potomac.”

September 3d.

Political news it would be absurd to record; for our information is more than limited, being frequently represented by a blank. Of the thirteen battles that Gibbes has fought in, I know the names of four only: Bull Run, Stonebridge, Port Republic, and Cedar Run. Think of all I have yet to hear! To-day comes the news of another grand affair, the defeat of McClellan, Pope, and Burnside combined. If I dared believe it! But accounts are too meagre as yet. Both Gibbes and George were in it, if there was a fight, and perhaps Jimmy, too. Well! I must wait in patience. We have lost so much already that God will surely spare those three to us. Oh! if they come again, if we can meet once more, what will the troubles of the last six months signify? If I dared hope that next summer would bring us Peace! I always prophesy it just six months off; but do I believe it?

Indeed, I don’t know what will become of us if it is delayed much longer. If we could only get home, it would be another thing; but boarding, how long will mother’s two hundred and fifty last? And that is all the money she has. As to the claims, amounting to a small fortune, she might as well burn them. They will never be paid. But if we get home, what will we do for bedding? The Yankees did not leave us a single comfort, and only two old bars and a pair of ragged sheets, which articles are not to be replaced at any price in the Confederacy, so we must go without. How glad I am that we gave all our blankets to our soldiers last summer! So much saved from the Yankees! [continue reading…]

Wednesday, 3d–Our regiment had to fall in line of battle this morning at 2 o’clock so that if the rebels should attack us they would not find us in our beds. The rebels did not appear and a big detail was put to work on the fortifications. When these works are completed a small force can hold them against a force five times the size.

Wednesday, 3rd. Spent the morning visiting with various boys about the prospects of going home. Boys all in high spirits. Talk of paying Burnett $5 to help us get out. Blunt gone to Leavenworth. When he returns, he will try to get the order made. Wrote quite a lengthy letter to Fred Allen–strange boy. This last letter is better than any I ever received from him.

Wednesday 3d.—Midnight, started for Lexington; arrived there just as day began to dawn, while gas-lamps were yet burning. Beautiful city; were greeted on every hand with waving handkerchiefs and Confederate flags. It seemed as if all in Lexington were Rebel sympathizers. Federal left thirty-six hours before our arrival, leaving wagons, tents, etc., in abundance. Remained still all day. During the day there was a continued stream of hacks, buggies, gigs, vehicles of almost every description, filled with ladies and Confederate flags, causing an almost incessant yell from the soldiers.

(Note: picture is of an unidentified Confederate soldier.)

SEPTEMBER 3d.—We lament the fall of Ewell–not killed, but his leg has been amputated. The enemy themselves report the loss, in killed and wounded, of eight generals! And Lee says, up to the time of writing, he had paroled 7000 prisoners, taken 10,000 stand of small arms, 50 odd cannon, and immense stores!

3d.—Wild stories on the street this morning, of the capture of prisoners, killing of generals, etc. Burnside and staff captured, they say. This last too good to be true.

3rd.–Moved our camp this morning, to Fort Worth, about two miles from Alexandria, a beautiful locality, overlooking city and river; and here, report says, we go into garrison for the winter. I would much rather be in the field, and now that my regiment is not likely to be exposed to active danger, I think longingly of home.

Mr. Lincoln’s call for 300,000 more troops was being answered. All over the country camps were being formed and boys drilled in all the pleasant villages of the land. Mother and all of us went to rest awhile, after Charley and G. came home, in Litchfield, and watched the drilling and recruiting.

Abby Howland Woolsey to H. G.

Litchfield, Sept. 3, 1862.

My dear Hatty ( Gilman): I should like you to see the beautiful camp of the 19th C. V. here before it is all broken up. We are to have a flag presentation from Mr. Wm. Curtis Noyes, and a religious farewell service was appointed to be held to-day in the Congregational Church. Good Dr. Vail will pray, I dare say, as he did on Sunday: ” God bless our 19th Regiment, the colonel and his staff, the captains, and all the rank and file.” . . .

The calm air, the physical comfort and peace we have here, make mental peace easier I suppose. We cannot be too thankful, we say to each other, that we are not in New York, heated and tired and despondent. It is infinitely sad, all this desperate fighting and struggling; this piecemeal destruction of our precious troops, only to keep the wolves at bay. But how well the country is going to bear it! I suppose these poor, innocent, confident new lives will be in the thickest of the fight at once. They will have their wish! be put to the immediate use for which they enlisted. . . . I grow stony and tearless over such a mass of human grief. I am lost in wonder, too, at the generalship, the daring and endurance of the Southern army. We are to fight it out now, even if it becomes extermination for us and them. . . .

Tuesday, 2d–There was some fighting south of town this morning and there is still some skirmishing. Old Patrick and several other citizens left, for they were afraid that the rebels would catch them and hang them. They had violated their oaths to support the Confederacy and then when the Union army took this section they had sworn to support the United States, and now thinking that this place would be retaken, they got out so as not to fall into the hands of the rebels.

Tuesday, 2nd. Slept till rather late–up in time for Sandy’s breakfast. During the day wrote to Fannie Andrews. Delos called in the morning and I read Ella’s letter to him. Commented upon it. In the evening Charlie came up and I again reviewed Ella’s letter with him. Read some in Shakespeare and the latest papers. Received letter from home. Last one from Minnie E. Tenney.

September 2.—Passed through Richmond at 7 A. M. Very nice little city. Saw quite a number of prisoners. Crossed Kentucky River at 12 o’clock; camped in a beautiful country, nine miles from Lexington.

(Note: picture is of an unidentified Confederate soldier.)

SEPTEMBER 2d.—Winchester is evacuated! The enemy fled, and left enough ordnance stores for a campaign! It was one of their principal depots.

Lynchburg, September 2.—The papers to-day give glorious news of a victory to our arms on the plains of Manassas, on the 28th, 29th, and 30th. I will give General Lee’s telegram:

Army of Northern Virginia,
Groveton, August 30 — 10 P.M.
Via Rapidan

“To President Davis:—This army achieved to-day, on the plains of Manassas, a signal victory over the combined forces of McClellan and Pope. On the 28th and 29th, each wing, under Generals Longstreet and Jackson, repulsed with valour attacks made on them separately. We mourn the loss of our gallant dead in every conflict, yet our gratitude to Almighty God for his mercies rises higher each day. To Him and to the valour of our troops a nation’s gratitude is due.

(Signed) “R.E. Lee”

Nothing more to-day—my heart is full. The papers give no news of the dead and wounded. The dreaded black-list yet to come. In the mean time we must let no evil forebodings mar our joy and thankfulness.