Had no breakfast
this morning except some we borrowed of Capt. Hitt. The Quarter Master is a d----d
mean man in the opinion of our Comp. he issued no rations to us yesterday
evening, nor came from town this morning until after 9 O'clock Capt Parke is
Officer of the day to day Furlough granted to F. T. Clark Joel Knipp and Robt.
Chapman running from this date till Saturday 31st August.
SOURCE: Transactions
of the Illinois State Historical Society
for the Year 1909, p. 223
We have had another march, this time about ten miles, through Dedham and towards Boston; the nearest we came to the city was West Roxbury. Probably we will not see much more of Boston, for the rumors are getting thicker and more substantial; but on this march, the boys who went, saw enough to make them wish to keep on to the city.
Our company is under great obligations to the following Boston gentlemen for the sum of three hundred dollars, with which to buy the patent knapsack: J. M. Beebe & Co., F. Skinner & Co., Alex. Beal, C. W. Cartwright, W. P. Sargent, Read, Gardner & Co., Wilkinson, Stetson & Co., Horatio Harris, J. R. Tibbets, E. & F. King & Co., G. Rogers, and J. C. Converse & Co.; and it is understood measures are being taken to furnish the other companies, so we will be equipped alike. The only trouble being can they be finished in time. This week which looks like the last one to be passed here, has been dismal enough, it has rained a good part of the time, and to crown all, we can't smoke in the barracks. Corporals or no corporals, it is hard work to keep us down. We had a fair time, and many a smoke under cover.
Some one has seen a box of one of the staff officers, marked New Berne, so unless it was a blind, that is our destination, the boys don't care much where, but only to get started. The last few days have finished the business; it is muddy, damp, and growing colder gradually, and we want to get away. Our last furloughs are gone, and the sooner we go the better.
SOURCE: John Jasper Wyeth, Leaves from a Diary Written While Serving in Co. E, 44 Mass. Dep’t of North Carolina from September 1862 to June 1863, p. 11
Company returned
from furlough at Lake City.
SOURCE: Lewis C.
Paxson, Diary of Lewis C. Paxson: Stockton, N.J., 1862-1865, p. 4
a beautifull day it looked
like the spring of the year and Mr. I. R. Moore left our camps today to go home
on a furlough
SOURCE: Bartlett
Yancey Malone, The Diary of Bartlett Yancey Malone, p. 15
clear and cool And A. I.
Brincefield started home today on a sick furlough
SOURCE: Bartlett
Yancey Malone, The Diary of Bartlett Yancey Malone, p. 15
Our first morning in camp. We were rudely awakened and dragged from our bunks at six o’clock, very few being used to such early hours, except perhaps on 4th of July, and were expected to be on the parade ground before our eyes were fairly open.
My advice is if you ever enlist again, start with buckle or congress boots, or none at all, don’t wear laced ones. Why Thereby hangs a tale. One man who wore laced boots was late, consequently had to fall in at the foot of the column. In a minute or two, around came the adjutant and some other officer, who wanted a man for guard. The man who was late at roll-call, was detailed of course. He went without a word was posted on the edge of a pond his orders being “Keep this water from being defiled, allow no privates to bathe here, let only the officers bathe and the cooks draw water to cook with.” The orders were fulfilled, but the poor guard was forgotten, and paced up and mostly down (as it was a pleasant grassy sward,) till eleven o clock. That was his first experience of guard duty, and he always owed a grudge to the sergeant of that guard and his laced boots.
Meanwhile, the company, left standing in the street, with their towels, combs, &c., proceeded to the water, where the pride of many a family got down on his knees, and went through the farce of a toilet, and then back to breakfast.
To-day we have been busy cleaning up and getting ready for our friends from home. It has been as novel a day as last night was new, it is a great change, but we will conquer this, and probably worse.
Our friends began to arrive about three o clock, and by supper-time the barracks were well filled, many remaining to supper so shawls and blankets were spread upon the ground, and we gave them a sample of our food. The coffee was good but so hot, and having no saucer with which to cool the beverage, we had to leave it till the last course. Our plates were plated with tin, but very shallow, and as bean soup was our principal course we had some little trouble in engineering it from the cook s quarters to our tables. We must not forget the bread, it was made by the State, and by the looks, had been owned by the State since the Mexican war. We had never seen the like, and begged to be excused from enduring much of it at a time. (We afterwards found no occasion to grumble at our food, for as you may remember, we were looked after well during our whole service. We had as good rations as any one could wish, but here, within ten miles of home, we felt that this was rough on the boys.)
For a week, little was done but feed and drill us, to toughen us for the dim future, and the furloughs were granted very freely. We were soon astonished to find that we had for a surgeon, a man who meant business. Among other things, he thought government clothes were all that we needed, so spring and fall overcoats and fancy dry goods had to be bundled up and sent home. All our good things were cleaned out, everything was contraband excepting what the government
allowed. We had always thought it a free country, but this broke in on our individual ideas of personal freedom, and we began to think we were fast losing all trace of civil rights, and becoming soldiers pure and simple. Nothing could be brought into camp by our friends unless we could eat it before the next morning but goodies would come, and as we had to eat them, of course we were sick.
SOURCE: John Jasper Wyeth, Leaves from a Diary Written While Serving in Co. E, 44 Mass. Dep’t of North Carolina from September 1862 to June 1863, p. 6-7
Ordered to prepare
to receive our arms. Company received a furlough of six days. Remained at Fort
Snelling. Henderson's company armed with Austrian guns.
SOURCE: Lewis C.
Paxson, Diary of Lewis C. Paxson:
Stockton, N.J., 1862-1865, p. 4
I caught cold last
night, and feel a little slim to-day. Lew Holmes got a pass for himself and me
to go down town and that cured me. The run about in Hudson with the nice fresh
air of to-day, together with a five-day furlough, which was given out to-night,
has worked wonders for those that were lucky enough to get them. It seems the
men are all to have a five-day furlough, but not all at once. The Amenia crowd
drew first prize. I am delighted to go, and yet there will be the good-byes to
say again, and I don't know after all whether I am glad or sorry.
SOURCE:
Lawrence Van Alstyne, Diary of an Enlisted Man, p. 9
Arrived at Sandy
Hook by two o'clock P. M. Relieved the First Battery, the pieces being turned
over to us. They started for home in the evening. Our camp is one mile from
Weavertown. The right section under Lieut. Vaughan, took position on Maryland
Heights, which command Loudon Heights and Harper's Ferry. Gen. Banks is in
command of this department. From this time, up to the thirteenth of August,
nothing exciting occurred. Battery drill in the morning and the manual of the
piece in the afternoon. Extremely hot weather during daytime. Capt. Reynolds
went home on a furlough.
SOURCE: Theodore
Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light
Artillery, p. 16
While hard at work
in the woods, hauling stocks for the mill, my furlough came, for eighteen days.
So I was relieved. On the 3d I left camp and got home on the morning of the
6th. It took me several days to get accustomed to living as a civilian, as I
have been in camp for two years at a stretch. I had a very good time, and will
always be grateful for the kindness shown me by every one while at home.
SOURCE: Louis
Leon, Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier, p. 56-7
We are still quiet. Nothing is going on except the continual fighting of the skirmishers, which amount to little more than a waste of powder and lead, although a man gets killed or wounded occasionally. The Yankees are keeping very quiet since the thrashing they received recently at this place and in front of Richmond. They will be apt to keep quiet now for some time-possibly for the remainder of the winter.
We are having rain. It fell all night and continues to-day. Billie's big coat came just in time for this cold spell of weather. He is as fat as a bear. The health of our troops is excellent and the spirit of the army is as fine as can be.
We shall know in a few days who is elected President of the United States. In my opinion Old Abraham will come in again, and I believe it would be best for us. McClellan might have the Union restored, if elected. I should prefer to remain at war for the rest of my life rather than to have any connection with the Yankees again.
You ask me to see Captain Pifer. I will do so if I happen to be near where he is again. He is now on the other (north) side of the James River with General Lee.
A man by the name of Simeon Werts is going home to-day on sick furlough for thirty days, and I shall send this letter to you by him. I shall also send my father some smoking tobacco, which we have been drawing monthly as part of our rations, and I shall send Dr. Clark some rolls of blistering ointment which we captured from the Yankees at Chancellorsville. I have more of it than I could use in two years. He has been very kind to you and I wish I had something more I could send him.
Our box of provisions from home still holds out, and if you will hurry up and come on, we may have some of it left when you arrive. I have just finished my breakfast, which consisted of hash, potatoes, biscuit, molasses and coffee. I do not mind the war as long as I can have plenty to eat and comfortable quarters. Your brother is very anxious for you to come out, and I believe you will enjoy it here this winter. It is most unfortunate that we have been able to see so little of each other during the four years of our married life.
The mails seem to be greatly deranged again, for I have not heard one word from you in two weeks. These clerks in the post-offices are the contemptible imps of cowardice who seek all the soft and safe places. They should be placed in the ranks and made to fight, and their places given to the young ladies who are refugees from within the enemy's lines and who would be glad to secure such employment.
Everything is quiet here now—only an occasional gun. Kershaw's Division has come back from the Valley and is now on the north side of the James River. The Yankees have not shelled Petersburg for several weeks, and it is beginning to have quite an air of business.
Grant agreed to cease shelling the city if General Lee would agree to keep all government property out of it. I do not believe Grant will make a serious attempt soon again to take Richmond or Petersburg.
A man is going home to-day on sick furlough, and I shall send this letter by him to be mailed to you from Columbia. I am glad you have decided positively to come on to Virginia. I will have everything ready for you when you arrive and will try to make you as comfortable as possible while you remain.
All quiet to-day. Brother Morris returned from Richmond yesterday, where he has been for ten days on a furlough. Before our Jewish New Year there was an order read out from General Lee granting a furlough to each Israelite to go to Richmond for the holidays if he so desired. I did not care to go.
Our captain, Harvey White, returned to camp yesterday from a furlough.
SOURCE: Louis
Leon, Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier, p. 47
Colonel McNairy
started home on a furlough on account of ill health, leaving Captain Allison in
command of the battalion.
Allison received
orders to cross the river and report to Zollicoffer's headquarters as soon as
his men could cook three days' rations. We did not have three days’ rations,
but we cooked what we had, went to the river and commenced crossing, when, on
learning that we did not have the requisite amount of rations, Zollicoffer
ordered Allison to go back to camps and cook the rations, which he ordered the
brigade commissary to furnish. As soon as we had cooked our rations Allison
crossed the river and reported to our General that the First Battalion was
ready to move. Our Captain soon after returned and reported that the order to
cross the river was countermanded.
Mr. Andy Bogle, from
Cannon County, Tennessee, came in a carriage after Clabe Francis, a member of
Allison's Company, who was sick.
Two companies of
Brazelton's Battalion, fifty men from McNairy's, and about five companies of
infantry went about ten miles up the south side of the river to guard and load
a forage train. While the wagons were being loaded our infantry exchanged a few
shots with some Federals who were on the opposite bank of the river, without
any damage on our side.
All returned to camp
a little after dark with thirty-four wagons loaded with corn and oats.
W. C. Hancock,
brother to the writer, and four others from Company E started home on “sick
furlough.”
For two or three days we have been expecting another fight, and we had three days' rations cooked and were ready to move.
It now appears that the Yankees have all gone back and that they sent only their cavalry forward. We have a very strong position here, and it is doubtful if they will advance this way. I am inclined to think that we shall soon begin to maneuver for the autumn campaign. It is reported that Longstreet's Corps had orders to move, and it was thought that it would be sent to the Army of the West. A part of it has gone off somewhere, and some of Ewell's troops were also moving recently.
Two men will be executed in our division next Saturday for desertion, and the entire division will be ordered out to witness it. I have never cared to witness a military execution, although I have been near enough several times to hear the report of the guns. Two men deserted from our regiment two nights ago, and, if we get them again, and this we are apt to do, they are sure to be shot. There is no other way to put a stop to desertions.
We have a large number of preachers here now from home, who are preaching to the soldiers, and we have religious services in camp almost every day.
Lieutenant-Colonel Hunt's wife is here to see him. Many others—wives of privates as well as officers have come to visit their husbands. I think this is a very unsuitable place for women. If a battle should occur unexpectedly, they would all be in a nice fix.
My furlough has not been returned, but it has not had time, and it would also be delayed by the "rumpus” that the Yankees have just stirred up. I do not hope to have it approved
I now, but I am very apt to get home before Christmas. I have nothing more to tell this time, so good-by to you and little George.
I was delayed about ten hours at Charlotte, N. C., and did not arrive in Richmond until seven o'clock this morning. The weather was very agreeable for traveling and I had no trouble with my trunks.
I ate but once out of my haversack the whole way here. My appetite was gone, for the death of our dear little George, together with parting from you in such deep grief, made me sadder than I ever felt before in all my life. The heaviest pang of sorrow came upon me when I entered the train to leave. Since my arrival here the excitement of the city has revived my spirits somewhat. I visited both houses of the Confederate Congress to-day and saw Colonel Orr and others from our State, and also the distinguished men from other States.
I have no fear that there will be any trouble about my staying over my furlough. Had I remained at home a week longer not a word would be said. I shall go on to Orange Court House to-morrow and will write you a longer letter when I reach our camp.
They have commenced
to give furloughs, one to every two companies.
SOURCE: Louis
Leon, Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier, p. 44
This morning Captain Ahern with two men from each company leave for Illinois to recruit for the regiment. The entire regiment is now making preparations to go home on furlough, which is one of the conditions in the veteran contract. All are now busy preparing for muster, making out rolls, filling up enlistment papers, &c.
SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 217
