Showing posts with label Bummers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bummers. Show all posts

Thursday, July 8, 2021

Major Charles Wright Wills: April 13, 1865—4 p.m.

Four miles from Raleigh, April 13, 1865, 4 p. m.

The fourth anniversary of the fall of Fort Sumter. How are you, chivalry? Made a nice little march of 16 miles and could go on to town as well as not before dark if it was necessary. Our left wing occupied Raleigh this morning with Kilpatrick and the 14th A. C. No fighting worth mentioning. We crossed the Neuse six miles from Raleigh on the paper mill bridge. This is the prettiest campaign we ever made. No night marching, 60 miles in four days, and just what rations we started with from Goldsboro in haversacks. Beautiful country to-day, high and rolling. The bummers found whisky to-day and I saw a number dead drunk by the roadside. They found an ice house and to-night we have ice water. Picked up a number of Rebel deserters to-day. The woods are full of them.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 369-70

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Lieutenant Colonel Charles Fessenden Morse: August 30, 1864

Near Railroad Bridge, C HattAhoochIe,
August 30, 1864.

We have changed our base, as you may perceive. On the night of the 25th, we learned that our corps was to go back to the river and hold a strong “tête du pont covering the bridges and ferries, while the remainder of the army made a grand movement towards the right to get position on the Macon Railroad. Our move was executed very well, all the caissons and wagons going to the rear on the night of the 25th, the troops remaining in position during the next day and moving back at night.

Our division holds a very strong line, covering the railroad bridge and two important wooden ones for wagons. We have made ourselves very strong here, with good earthworks and timber slashed into an impenetrable abattis for five hundred yards in our front, and are now ready for any part of the rebel army that sees fit to attack us. Hood will probably have all he wants on his hands, to look after Sherman and his communications. The 27th was a bright day in our calendar. On that day, General Slocum returned and took command; he rode along our position, and was received with the greatest enthusiasm by the whole line. I had a chance to shake hands with him and say a few words. He is looking finely. I set him down now as one of the very best generals in the whole army, and I think time will prove him so. He is, in every way, a good soldier, and what is better, a true man, devoid of humbug and “rich in saving common sense.” Professional bummers and loafers must make themselves scarce now, and men who do their duty will be recognized once more.

SOURCE: Charles Fessenden Morse, Letters Written During the Civil War, 1861-1865, p. 186-7

Monday, February 1, 2016

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: May 10, 1865

A letter from a Pharisee who thanks the Lord she is not as other women are; she need not pray, as the Scotch parson did, for a good conceit of herself. She writes, “I feel that I will not be ruined. Come what may, God will provide for me.” But her husband had strengthened the Lord's hands, and for the glory of God, doubtless, invested some thousands of dollars in New York, where Confederate moth did not corrupt nor Yankee bummers break through and steal. She went on to tell us: “I have had the good things of this world, and I have enjoyed them in their season. But I only held them as steward for God. My bread has been cast upon the waters and will return to me.”

E. M. Boykin said to-day: “We had a right to strike for our independence, and we did strike a bitter blow. They must be proud to have overcome such a foe. I dare look any man in the face. There is no humiliation in our position after such a struggle as we made for freedom from the Yankees.” He is sanguine. His main idea is joy that he has no negroes to support, and need hire only those he really wants.

Stephen Elliott told us that Sherman said to Joe Johnston, “Look out for yourself. This agreement only binds the military, not the civil, authorities.” Is our destruction to begin anew? For a few weeks we have had peace.

Sally Reynolds told a short story of a negro pet of Mrs. Kershaw's. The little negro clung to Mrs. Kershaw and begged her to save him. The negro mother, stronger than Mrs. Kershaw, tore him away from her. Mrs. Kershaw wept bitterly. Sally said she saw the mother chasing the child before her as she ran after the Yankees, whipping him at every step. The child yelled like mad, a small rebel blackamoor.

SOURCES: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 389-90