Tullahoma, Tenn., November 28, 1863.
We are in the midst of exciting news from the front, yet we
have had no particulars. It is evident, however, that we have taken several
thousand prisoners and a large quantity of artillery.*
Since the fight at Wauhatchie, there has been no slurring of
the Army of the Potomac men. That little affair was a great thing for us. By
our own and rebel accounts, there is no doubt that our men fought most
gallantly there against superior numbers of their old antagonists.
Every train that comes from the South brings a load of
prisoners or wounded men, and rumors that fighting is still going on at the
front. It seems to me, now, for the first time since the war began, that the
rebellion is nearly crushed. They have not met with any very decisive success
for nearly six months, and are now contracted into the smallest territory they
have ever occupied.
Atlanta is our important point now; get that, and we have
again cut the Confederacy in two, and in a vital place What a glorious thing it
would be if we could wind up this rebellion before our original three years are
out! It would exceed all my expectations to do this.
Thanksgiving Day was a very pleasant one, warm and bright as
May. I took an escort of half a dozen cavalry and rode down to the regiment,
which is about ten miles from here. I found them camped very comfortably just
outside strong earthworks built to command the railroad bridge over the Elk
river. Colonel Coggswell is in command of the post and has a battery in addition
to his regiment. lie has made himself very strong, and could defend the place
against a large force.
I took a very quiet dinner with the field and staff. Of
course we could not help thinking of our other Thanksgiving Days in the
regiment, and it brought up many sad memories. At our first dinner at Seneca,
Maryland, all our old officers were present; last year there had been many
changes, but there were still left a goodly number of the old stock, and we
were knit closer together by our losses. This year I couldn't help a feeling of
desolation as I remembered that, of all my friends in the regiment, very few
were left. How little I thought, when we left Camp Andrews, that we should have
such a sad experience!
In looking over his trunks for a photograph, Colonel
Coggswell found a letter that had come for me while I was in Massachusetts; he
gave it to me, and I found the address was in Bob Shaw's writing. You can
imagine how glad I was to get it. I always thought it a little strange that he
had not answered my last letter. I opened it the first chance I got. It was
mostly a description of his movements to Darien and other places; but at the
close he spoke in a very feeling way of our friendship and intimacy, and of his
happiness since his marriage. It was written on the 3rd of July; in it he asked
to be remembered to Robeson, Mudge, and Tom Fox; little did he think that, at
the moment he wrote, one of them was lying dead on the field of battle, and the
other two suffering with mortal wounds.
The men of the regiment had a very pleasant day; they had
plenty of geese and turkeys for dinner, and in the evening the brigade band
came down from Tullahoma, and gave them some music. I am glad that our men have
each been able to keep this day somewhat as if they had been at home.
I stayed next morning and saw guard mounting done as it is
done nowhere else, and then rode back here again.
_______________
* The battles of Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain.
SOURCE: Charles Fessenden Morse, Letters Written
During the Civil War, 1861-1865, p. 158-60
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