This volume does not claim to be a tactical, or strategic history of
the campaigns of which it treats; it aims rather to be a narrative of
the every-day life and experience of the private soldier in camp and
field—how he lived, how he marched, how he fought and how he suffered.
No sooner had some of the volunteers reached the front, and been
subjected to the hardships and exposures of army life, than they fell
sick, were sent to the hospital and were discharged without passing
through any serious campaigns. Others were wounded early, were disabled
and were never able to return to their regiments. The more fortunate
passed sound and unscathed through battle after battle and campaign
after campaign through the whole war. Three years of active campaigning
and a year in the hospital was the allotment of the writer, who thus
was in the service from the beginning to the end of the war.
Whatever the merits or demerits of this work may be, the impressions
and the composition are my own. They are an elaboration of notes made
during the war and directly after it, following which, it has taken the
form of a diary.
The part of the work which has been least interesting, consumed more
time and required some research, has been in fixing the dates when the
different incidents occurred, they having passed entirely from memory
long ago. With these few words, the work is submitted by the writer to
his comrades of those four eventful and trying years, when the life of
the Republic hung in the balance, in the hope that it may be an aid in
calling to mind fading recollections of pleasant incidents, as well as
heroic deeds performed by comrades.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
LEARNING TO BE A SOLDIER 9
Leaving Camp Lincoln for the front. At Baltimore, Maryland.
Cantaloupes and Peaches. Annapolis, Maryland. Chesapeake
Bay oysters. Assisting negroes to escape. Doing picket duty
on the railroad. A Negro husking. Chaplain Ball arrives from
Massachusetts. Assigned to the 2d Brigade, 2d Division, 9th
Army Corps.
CHAPTER II
THE NORTH CAROLINA CAMPAIGN 27
On shipbound. Burial at sea. At Hatteras Inlet. Battle of
Roanoke Island. Battle of Newbern. Reading Johnnies' love
letters. Athletics. Battle of Camden. Went to the relief
of the 2d Maryland.
CHAPTER III
IN VIRGINIA UNDER GENERAL POPE 53
A ride in the Confederate doctor's “One horse Chaise.”
Living off the country. Learning the distance to Germania
Ford. The Second Battle of Bull Run. The Battle of Chantilly.
CHAPTER IV
WITH MCCLELLAN IN MARYLAND 83
The Barbara Fretchie Incident. The Battle of South Mountain.
Death of General Reno. The Battle of Antietam. Clara Barton.
President Lincoln visits the army. Visited a farmhouse very
near a Confederate Camp.
CHAPTER V
THE FREDERICKSBURG CAMPAIGN 101
A hard race for a pig. Chaplain Ball returns home. Picket
duty along the river. The Battle of Fredericksburg. Burying
the dead. Christmas revels with the Confederates. A band of
horn-blowers. A raid on the sutler. A costume ball at Hotel
de Ville.
CHAPTER VI
PLAYING SOLDIER IN KENTUCKY 127
Our breakfast at Baltimore. The trip west. The Reception at
Mt. Sterling. Moved into the town.
CHAPTER VII
THE CAMPAIGN IN TENNESSEE 137
We crossed the Cumberland Range. The patient mule. Seeing
a railroad engine with a train of cars make a dive. The
siege of Knoxville. Will you lend me my Nigger Colonel.
Re-enlistment. Recrossed the Mountains, returning to Kentucky
on the way home, on our re-enlistment furlough.
CHAPTER VIII
HOME ON A RE-ENLISTMENT FURLOUGH 155
The trip home. Reception at Worcester. The Social Whirl. We
returned to Annapolis.
CHAPTER IX
WITH GRANT IN VIRGINIA 159
The Battle of the Wilderness. The Battle of Spotsylvania
Courthouse. Johnnies caught un-dressed. The Battle of
Bethseda Church. The Johnnie who wanted to see the sun rise.
Life in the trenches during the siege of Petersburg. Wounded.
CHAPTER X
LIFE IN THE HOSPITAL 182
That ride in the ambulance. Emory Hospital. The woman with
my Mother's name. The dreadful death rate. President Lincoln's
Second Inauguration. Booth's Ride. Doing clerical work in
Philadelphia. Discharged.