General Phelps

A ship Island correspondent of the Gloucester Telegraph sketches Gen. Phelps’ peculiarities after the flowing fashion:

“Gen. Phelps is a character.  He is perfectly democratic in his habits.  Many a Colonel, and even captains, would do well to follow his simplicity and style.  He lives in a common tent, which is pitched close by the sidewalk, with nothing to distinguish it but a sentinel who paces before it during only the day.  Close by is what I supposed for some time to be a traveling daguerreotype saloon, but at last found out was his office.  He does not have a bed but takes his blanket and sleeps on the floor.  His food is common soldier’s fare.  One of our Lieutenants heard him the other day tell what a nice dish of rice and molasses he had for supper the night before.  He dresses with great plainness, has but one servant and does not even keep a horse.  He takes only his monthly pay from the government and all his allowances he turns into the treasury.  He says that extravagance is ruining the government, and he will not be a party to it.  Every officer he holds to a strict account, especially the Quartermasters.  No one can do anything that he does not have an oversight of.  He has made the Zouaves doff their showy trappings and don the regular uniform.  He puts the officers through in great shape, and does not hesitate to blow them up on parade when they deserve it.  To his men he is very kind and lenient, and is much beloved by them all.  He has a rich Yankee drawl in his voice which it makes one laugh to hear.  This model General honored me with a brief speech on parade the other day, to-wit: ‘Sergeant, turn about and stand perfectly still.  Don’t budge and inch.’”

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, May 8, 1862, p. 2