Diary of Dr. Alfred L. Castleman, August 23, 1861

Colonel ——— to-day complains that I have too much force employed in the hospital, and says that he will cut it down. The regulations allow ten nurses and two cooks to the regiment, besides Surgeons, and Hospital Steward. All I have, are three nurses and two cooks. Will he dare to cut that down? Should he do so I will "try conclusions" as to his authority to do it. Three nurses, for one hundred sick, and that must be cut down! Nor is this all. The Quartermaster, taking his cue from the Colonel, refuses to acknowledge our right to a hospital fund, and I therefore get but few comforts for the sick, except through charity or a fight for it. It is to be hoped that these officers will, by a little more experience, become better posted in their duties, and that the sick will not then be considered interlopers, or intruders on the comforts of the regiment. I forgot to say, in the proper place, that we are brigaded, forming a part of Gen. Rufus King's brigade, composed of four regiments.

I have not yet donned the full uniform of my rank, and there is scarcely a day passes that I do not get a reproving hint on the subject from our Colonel. A few days ago, whilst in Baltimore, he came to me almost railing at certain army officers for appearing in citizens' dress. "There," said he, "is Major B., Major K., Gen. D., Doct. N. P., all of the regular army, and not one of whom can be distinguished from a private citizen." "Colonel," I replied, "they probably fear being mistaken for volunteer officers. He did not feel flattered, but dropped the subject. Since I came here, I think I can tell a man's calibre by his shoulder-straps. The amount of brain is generally in inverse proportion to the size of his straps.

SOURCE: Alfred L. Castleman, The Army of the Potomac. Behind the Scenes. A Diary of Unwritten History; From the Organization of the Army, by General George B. McClellan, to the close of the Campaign in Virginia about the First Day January, 1863, p. 18

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Wednesday, September 10, 1862

We camped near Seneca Bridge, about twenty-five to thirty miles from Washington. The order cutting down baggage trains leaves us eight waggons; — one for headquarters, i. e. field and staff; one for hospital; two for stores; four for company cooking utensils and the like. The band trouble breaks out again. We enjoy these short marches among great bodies of moving troops very much. Tonight the sutler sold brandy peaches making about ten or a dozen of our men drunk. I thereupon made a guard-house of the sutler's tent and kept all the drunken men in it all night! A sorry time for the sutler! Got orders to move at the word any time after 10 o'clock. I simply did nothing!

Camp near Rich or Ridgefield [Ridgeville], about forty miles from Baltimore, about thirty from Washington, about seventeen from Frederick. Marched today from ten to fourteen miles. Occasionally showery — no heavy rain; dust laid, air cooled. Marched past the Fifth, Seventh, Twenty-ninth, and Sixty-sixth Ohio regiments. They have from eighty to two hundred men each — sickness, wounds, prisoners, etc., etc., the rest. This looks more like closing the war from sheer exhaustion than anything I have seen. Only four commissioned officers in the Seventh. A lieutenant in command of one regiment; an adjutant commands another! Saw General Crawford today, he was very cordial.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 349-50

Diary of Private Charles Wright Wills: July 27, 1861

Cairo.  We number now about 60 and have 25 days in which to fill up to 100. Two hundred and fifty of our regiment of three-months’ men have re-enlisted. Two hundred and fifty out of 680, which is considerably better than any eastern regiment that I have seen mentioned. There was not a sick man in our company when we returned, and there is not now. One of the boys just tells me that day before yesterday morning there were but eight in the regiment hospital. Three men from our regiment have died in three and a half months. One of these I know killed himself with imprudence. I have telegraphed to the boys to be in Peoria Wednesday. I have not the least idea that any of them will back out. It does seem real good to be back here again where a fellow can swing himself and lay around loose with sleeves up, collar open, (or shirt off if it suits him better) hair unkempt, face unwashed and everything un-anything. It beats clerking ever so much! We were paid off yesterday. The privates received $56.72 each in gold, silver and copper, which is $24.00 more than we expected.

We are having some more excitement in camp to-day. A rumored attack in prospect on Bird's Point is the subject. We are putting the recruits through in two-forty-style to get them ready. Twenty rounds of cartridges were served to us at noon to-day, and Prentiss’ aids are galloping round as if tight. About one quarter of the recruits have their accoutrements on, and some of them scoot up on the levee every ten minutes to look at the Point. We have all kinds of rumors of from 2,000 to 15,000 Rebels within from 6 to 15 miles of us, but if 20 preachers would swear to the truth, there's not one man that has been here three months would believe it. Been fooled too often! Our officers are careful though, and treat every thing from head-quarters as reliable till the contrary is proven.

It is a horrid trip from Peoria to Cairo as the trains run now. We laid over three hours in El Paso, and eleven hours in Centralia; from 11 p. m. till 10 a. m. Awful! and rode down from Centralia in an accommodation freight. The bed was excellent at home, but I think that sleeping on boards rests me better and I know I sleep sounder.

Have worked two hours hard at cleaning up quarters and eating supper since my last period. Supper consisted of coffee, bread and butter, and cold steak pickled in vinegar. Vinegar is a great improvement on cold beef, I wonder you never adopted it. We have a prime lot of boys this time. There are not ten out of the whole company that I would not like to have for associates at home. I don't believe that one of them will ever take quarters in the guard-house.

I think our company will be full in ten days. We have refused lots of roughs here in camp also in Peoria, but three or four little ones have crept in through acquaintances' influence. Those men we have will learn to drill in half less time than any other lot of recruits on the ground, because they have a pride in their appearance and dress, and that has given them a better carriage and command of themselves than rougher customers have.

We will have in a few days nothing but new recruits here except the fractions of regiments that have re-enlisted; the 10th, which calls itself the crack regiment of the post, will all leave for home day after to-morrow. If it does not come back full in 30 days it will be disbanded. This is Prentiss' old regiment.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 20-2

Major Wilder Dwight: December 15, 1861

camp Hicks, Near Frederick, December 15, 1861.

Another bright, sunny Sunday; the regiment growing in grace, favor, and winter quarters. The band has got its new instruments, and has been piping melodiously in the moonlight this evening. The instruments are very fine indeed. . . . .

To-morrow morning our brigade is to be reviewed by General –––. Napoleon, as the newspapers are fond of saying, used to precede his great battles and important movements by grand reviews. General ––– is not Napoleon. Voilà tout.

The Colonel, since we got into this new camp, has been doing a good deal of “rampaging,” and with excellent effect. I think I never saw the regiment in better condition. The relaxed discipline consequent on sickness and the march has recovered its tone completely. We have had a court-martial sitting for several days, and the men have been very generally and impartially punished in their pay. This is good economy for the government, and a sharp lesson for the men. Each of the divisional departments — the commissary, the quartermaster, the medical — are lame and impotent.

What do you say to the fact that, but for the activity and outside zeal of our quartermaster, we should be in rags?

The division takes no care of us; we go to head-quarters at Washington, and take care of ourselves. We go to Washington; but the theory and duty is, that everything comes to us through the division department here.

This has never been true, and, as I said, but for our irregular and enterprising expeditions to Washington, there is little we could get for ourselves. Again, what do you say to the fact that to-day, but for the activity of officers outside of the medical department, and but for their spending money saved from other sources, our hospital tent would be floorless, storeless, and flung to the breeze? Now, however, it has a nice floor, good bunks, and a warm, cheerful stove; and, yesterday morning, at inspection, looked as neat and comfortable as your parlor. No thanks, however, to the medical men. The division medical director don't know to-day that our typhoid-fever patients are not basking in precarious sunshine on the bosom — the cold, chaste bosom — of unnatural Mother Earth, after a sleepless night in the pale shadows of the moon!! To be sure, he guesses that the Second Massachusetts Regiment will take care of itself; but while they are issuing stoves, &c., at Washington, we are buying them for ourselves here.

Again, a brisk little stove is humming in almost every tent of the companies; many of the tents are floored: all this, however, with our own money, — individual, regimental enterprise, not divisional or departmental care. Such is the picture we present. Add to this that all this outlay and endeavor is adventured by us in the face of a blank uncertainty of the future, an utter darkness, an outer darkness, as to whether we are here for a day or for all time, and you have a position that would arouse complaint, if we allowed ourselves to grumble. We have no hint from head-quarters to guide us. We have been here nearly two weeks: perhaps we shall get advice when we have finished our action. Advice to act on is what we want. Head, control, direction, will, organization, is what we miss. I speak only of the sphere in which we move, of this department. It is a part of McClellan's army, however, and, as such, is entitled to better guidance. I do not put the fault on General Banks, but on the crippled condition in which his staff and departments are kept. Of this, however, I am not in a position to be an observer or a judge. I can speak only of the results which I see. There is no reason why I should harp on this theme, however. We get on finely, only I like to make it understood that we do so over obstacles. This is natural, I suppose.

When I hear, too, all this talk about a “grand army,” “the splendid spectacle our country presents,” &c., &c. “what a terror we should be to England,” “how ready we are for war,” I know that it is the nonsense of ignorance that men are talking. “Clear your mind of cant,” says Dr. Johnson.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Amelia Dwight, Editor, Life and Letters of Wilder Dwight: Lieut.-Col. Second Mass. Inf. Vols., p. 172-4

Major Wilder Dwight: November 30, 1861

camp Near Seneca, November 30, 1861.

If anything were needed to assure my decision regarding a visit home, it could be found in the experience of the past two days. Yesterday — a rainy day, by the way — I was fully occupied with questions relating to the sick, and, in the afternoon, by a session of the Board of Claims. To-day, field-officer of the day. It has been a bright, windy, drying day, for which we are thankful. A tardy wisdom has at length decided to remove the division of General Banks from its present grotesque position to the neighborhood of Frederick City. Within easy distance, by rail, of Harper's Ferry, of Baltimore, and Washington, the division will there be promptly available for any purpose. It will be placed in a more healthy position. It will be within reach of supplies. It will be so far permanent that it can make itself comfortable for a season. How it will get there is quite another question. The rains of the past week have made the roads almost impassable; and to move a whole division, with its immense trains, a distance of thirty miles, over swollen watercourses and worn-out roads, seems a hopeless undertaking. We probably commence the attempt Tuesday morning. It is certainly a move in the right direction, and seems, to my narrow horizon, made a month too late.

To-day a part of our sick have been sent off to the General Hospital at Baltimore. Preparations were made yesterday by the Medical Director to send the worst cases from the whole division.

The order to move the sick down to the canal to take the boat came early this morning. At ten o'clock they were moving; and at five o'clock this afternoon the boat was ready for them. The whole day they waited — two hundred sick men, in wagons and in discomfort — on the banks of the canal. The sight was most irritating this afternoon when I rode down there.

Just at nightfall they were huddled in, one hundred and fifty men to one canal-boat, the rest sent back for want of room, and the boat moved off. Wretched mismanagement, and I fear great suffering as its fruit.

In fact, the whole hospital system is a blunder, if not a crime. It wants entire reorganization. There should be no regimental hospitals. What can a regiment do, dragging sick men after it? How can a regiment, with its hospital tent, take proper care of them?

The proper system would be to have hospitals attached to divisions, all the sick, except trivial cases, sent there, and treated by surgeons who have only that to do. Then the regiment would be free from its greatest embarrassment in the field. Then the sick would not die, as I have seen them do, for mere want of warmth, rest, and nursing. As a matter of organization and unity, as an administrative question, it seems as clear as sunlight; but we work along in a system that did well enough for an army of fifteen thousand men scattered in barracks and garrisons in time of peace, but is utterly inapplicable to a vast army in the field. To-day's blundering movement was, however, bad management, even according to this false system. It stirs one up to see it. But I won't preach on this text any more.

I hope the war will last long enough to give us an army organized according to all the wisdom and experience of other nations, and carefully adapted to our own wants. What a splendid creation such an army would be! In fact, how plain it is, to any one who watches the progress of things out here, that a soldier is an artificial mechanism, that an army is still more so, that for a nation to neglect the art which produces its army is the same thing as for a man to reject the exercises and discipline which promote his vigor. Well, perhaps we shall grow wiser as we grow older; perhaps we shall blunder in some other direction.

I am in hopes to get Colonel Andrews off to-day or tomorrow, in canal-boat, to Washington. This last sentence is written Sunday morning, the rest being Saturday-night reflections. The day is a dark and threatening one. We shall have a fine march to Frederick!

I am very well indeed, and there is no news with us. Love to all.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Amelia Dwight, Editor, Life and Letters of Wilder Dwight: Lieut.-Col. Second Mass. Inf. Vols., p. 161-3

Diary of Charles H. Lynch: April 1863

Having been an inmate in the hospital for three months, at my own request, I was allowed to join my company, located at Fort Marshall, east end of Baltimore. Reported to Lieutenant Merwin, commanding company. He would not allow me to go on duty. Wished me to remain at Regimental Hospital for a while until I could get stronger.

SOURCE: Charles H. Lynch, The Civil War Diary, 1862-1865, of Charles H. Lynch 18th Conn. Vol's, p. 15

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Wednesday, July 2, 1862

I went out about a half mile from camp to pick blackberries, and I picked a gallon of them and sold them to the hospital steward for $1.25.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 56

The Post Hospital

Yesterday we paid a visit to the Hospital at this place.  We found there some seventy patients belonging to the 5th Iowa and 37th Illinois, and also some of the 1st Iowa Cavalry and Merrill’s Horse, wounded at the battle of Silver Creek, who, we are glad to say, are all rapidly recovering.  The whole arrangements of the hospital are excellent. – The rooms are kept warm and are as clean and neat as any hospitals in the Eastern cities.  The patients all seemed well satisfied with the treatment received.  They have excellent attendance by the numerous nurses, and in every case have as good care as they would have at home.  Dr. Carpenter, the Assistant surgeon of the 5th Iowa, has recently been appointed Post Surgeon, who besides an able and efficient Surgeon gives his unwearied and undivided attention to mitigate sufferings of the sick and wounded soldiers. – The friends of the soldiers in the 5th Iowa may rest assured that when the men are sick, they have as good attendance as can be afforded.  It is true that on a march the accommodations are not great, but every attention is paid to their wants and comforts that can be procured.  Dr. Carpenter is assisted by Dr. Haas of Booneville, and Mr. Smith, one of the best Stewards in the service. – {5th Iowa Register, Booneville, Mo.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 3

Army Correspondence

FORT HOLT, Ky., Jan. 23, 1862

The 7th Regiment reached Cairo last Saturday evening.  We found Cairo one big, deep quagmire.  Mud, mud, everywhere, of the blackest and most adhesive character.  Although we had been a whole week on the road from St. Louis, yet the authorities had neglected to provide any accommodations for our troops on their arrival.  The Regiment was quartered on board the steamer City of Memphis for the night.  The next day (Sunday) we were ordered to Bird’s Point, but on enquiry it was found that the barracks assigned us, were occupied by other troops. – Next we were told to take quarters in Cairo but here also, we found the 8th Wisconsin Regiment had preceded us and taken the only quarters available.  Finally we were ordered over here.  Accordingly we proceeded very early Monday morning to invade the sacred soil of Kentucky.  Ground was soon marked out for a camp when our tents were set up, and tent life once more commenced.  The weather is pleasant and we manage to live very comfortably.  Our camp is on a sand ridge which borders the river, and on the whole a very charming spot.  In front we have Cairo and Bird’s Point in full view, whilst between rolls the broad expanse of water formed by the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.  In spite of poor tents and previous hard usage, we consider ourselves very comfortably fixed.

How long we shall remain here is entirely unknown to us.  We are under orders however, to be ready to march at an hour’s notice.

The men are in good spirits and eager for active operations in the field.  We have with us a little over five hundred men – nearly all fit for active service.  Many of those wounded ant Belmont are rejoining their respective companies, and never more anxious than now to do battle in their country’s cause – the cause of Good and humanity.

I would here take occasion to acknowledge the reception of many articles for the sick and wounded of our regiment, from the “Ladies’ Aid Societies” of Burlington and vicinity.  The Congregationalist Church of Burlington has laid us under many obligations for the many and valuable additions it has made to our hospital stores.  The Old Zion Methodist Church, which has made generous provision for the unfortunate sufferers by the fatal fight at Belmont.  More recently Mr. David Leonard, Corresponding Secretary of the Ladies’ Aid Society of the District in which he lives, consigned to my care a valuable box of hospital stores for our wounded in the Mound City hospital.  This box was duly received there, and distributed amongst the Iowa troops, according to the expressed wishes of the donors.  Colonel Lauman has just received a box of hospital stores from the Episcopal Church of Burlington, and also another from Mr. Wm. Lynn, of Pleasant Grove, Iowa, both valuable boxes.  By means of these generous donations and other smaller ones not here enumerated our Regimental Hospital has been well supplied and the comfort of the sick and wounded very materially enhanced.

I doubt not it will be a great gratification to our Iowa friends to know that their efforts to benefit the sick and wounded of our brave State troops are duly appreciated and effective in accomplishing the object assigned.

The river is rising rapidly and my soon drive us from our Camping ground.

J. H. CLARK,

Chaplain of the Iowa Seventh

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 1