Brigadier-General William F. Bartlett: Tuesday, August 2, 1864

Carried in a dirty wagon without any cover to the prison, a filthy place, an old warehouse and stores. We were on the first floor, about three hundred, as thick as we could lie. No ventilation. I saw the Doctor in the morning; he said he would send me to the hospital. I could not eat anything; am feverish and so weak. No crutches. I have to be partly carried, partly hop along, when I move. Ration issued, corn bread, thick loaf, and bacon. I can't touch either; still drink water. If I do not get away from here very soon, I never shall. Wagon came for me about six, an open wagon or cart, used to carry bacon in, all covered with dirt and grease; gravel spread on the bottom to cover the grease; ride over rough road to hospital; am in a tent, old and ragged, but airy; good breeze. (Small-pox.)

SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, p. 120

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: April 3, 1865

Saw General Preston ride off. He came to tell me good-by. I told him he looked like a Crusader on his great white horse, with William, his squire, at his heels. Our men are all consummate riders, and have their servants well mounted behind them, carrying cloaks and traps — how different from the same men packed like sardines in dirty railroad cars, usually floating inch deep in liquid tobacco juice.

For the kitchen and Ellen's comfort I wanted a pine table and a kitchen chair. A woman sold me one to-day for three thousand Confederate dollars.

Mrs. Hamilton has been disappointed again. Prioleau Hamilton says the person into whose house they expected to move to-day came to say she could not take boarders for three reasons: First, “that they had smallpox in the house.” “And the two others?” “Oh, I did not ask for the two others!”

SOURCES: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 375-6

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: February 9, 1864

This party for Johnny was the very nicest I have ever had, and I mean it to be my last. I sent word to the Carys to bring their own men. They came alone, saying, “they did not care for men.” “That means a raid on ours,” growled Isabella. Mr. Lamar was devoted to Constance Cary. He is a free lance; so that created no heart-burning.

Afterward, when the whole thing was over, and a success, the lights put out, etc., here trooped in the four girls, who stayed all night with me. In dressing-gowns they stirred up a hot fire, relit the gas, and went in for their supper; réchauffé was the word, oysters, hot coffee, etc. They kept it up till daylight.

Of course, we slept very late. As they came in to breakfast, I remarked, “The church-bells have been going on like mad. I take it as a rebuke to our breaking the Sabbath. You know Sunday began at twelve o'clock last night.” “It sounds to me like fire-bells,” somebody said.

Soon the Infant dashed in, done up in soldier's clothes: “The Yankees are upon us!” said he. “Don't you hear the alarm-bells? They have been ringing day and night!” Alex Haskell came; he and Johnny went off to report to Custis Lee and to be enrolled among his “locals,” who are always detailed for the defense of the city. But this time the attack on Richmond has proved a false alarm.

A new trouble at the President's house: their trusty man, Robert, broken out with the smallpox.

We went to the Webb ball, and such a pleasant time we had. After a while the P. M. G. (Pet Major-General) took his seat in the comfortable chair next to mine, and declared his determination to hold that position. Mr. Hunter and Mr. Benjamin essayed to dislodge him. Mrs. Stanard said: “Take him in the flirtation room; there he will soon be captured and led away,” but I did not know where that room was situated. Besides, my bold Texan made a most unexpected sally: “I will not go, and I will prevent her from going with any of you.” Supper was near at hand, and Mr. Mallory said: “Ask him if the varioloid is not at his house. I know it is.” I started as if I were shot, and I took Mr. Clay's arm and went in to supper, leaving the P. M. G. to the girls. Venison and everything nice.

SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 286-7

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: December 10, 1860

We have been up to the Mulberry Plantation with Colonel Colcock and Judge Magrath, who were sent to Columbia by their fellow-citizens in the low country, to hasten the slow movement of the wisdom assembled in the State Capital. Their message was, they said: “Go ahead, dissolve the Union, and be done with it, or it will be worse for you. The fire in the rear is hottest.” And yet people talk of the politicians leading! Everywhere that I have been people have been complaining bitterly of slow and lukewarm public leaders.

Judge Magrath is a local celebrity, who has been stretched across the street in effigy, showing him tearing off his robes of office. The painting is in vivid colors, the canvas huge, and the rope hardly discernible. He is depicted with a countenance flaming with contending emotions—rage, disgust, and disdain. We agreed that the time had now come. We had talked so much heretofore. Let the fire-eaters have it out. Massachusetts and South Carolina are always coming up before the footlights.

As a woman, of course, it is easy for me to be brave under the skins of other people; so I said: “Fight it out. Bluffton¹ has brought on a fever that only bloodletting will cure.” My companions breathed fire and fury, but I dare say they were amusing themselves with my dismay, for, talk as I would, that I could not hide.

At Kingsville we encountered James Chesnut, fresh from Columbia, where he had resigned his seat in the United States Senate the-day before. Said some one spitefully, “Mrs. Chesnut does not look at all resigned.” For once in her life, Mrs. Chesnut held her tongue: she was dumb. In the high-flown style which of late seems to have gotten into the very air, she was offering up her life to the cause.

We have had a brief pause. The men who are all, like Pickens,² “insensible to fear,” are very sensible in case of small-pox. There being now an epidemic of small-pox in Columbia, they have adjourned to Charleston. In Camden we were busy and frantic with excitement, drilling, marching, arming, and wearing high blue cockades. Red sashes, guns, and swords were ordinary fireside accompaniments. So wild were we, I saw at a grand parade of the home-guard a woman, the wife of a man who says he is a secessionist per se, driving about to see the drilling of this new company, although her father was buried the day before.

Edward J. Pringle writes me from San Francisco on November 30th: “I see that Mr. Chesnut has resigned and that South Carolina is hastening into a Convention, perhaps to secession. Mr. Chesnut is probably to be President of the Convention. I see all of the leaders in the State are in favor of secession. But I confess I hope the black Republicans will take the alarm and submit some treaty of peace that will enable us now and forever to settle the question, and save our generation from the prostration of business and the decay of prosperity that must come both to the North and South from a disruption of the Union. However, I won't speculate. Before this reaches you, South Carolina may be off on her own hook — a separate republic.”

_______________

¹ A reference to what was known as “the Bluffton movement” of 1844, in South Carolina. It aimed at secession, but was voted down.

² Francis W. Pickens, Governor of South Carolina, 1860-62. He had been elected to Congress in 1834 as a Nullifier, but had voted against the " Bluffton movement." From 1858 to 1860, he was Minister to Russia. He was a wealthy planter and had fame as an orator.

SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 2-4

Major-General Thomas J. Jackson to Mary Anna Morrison Jackson, January 6, 1863

January 6th.

I am very thankful to our kind Heavenly Father for good tidings from you and baby — specially that she is restored again to health, and I trust that we all three may so live as most to glorify His holy name.  . . . I have a visor, but I hope I shall not have to sleep in a tent any more this winter. My ears are still troubling me, but I am very thankful that my hearing is as good as usual, and from my appearance one would suppose that I was perfectly well. Indeed, my health is essentially good, but I do not think I shall be able in future to stand what I have already stood, although, with the exception of the increased sensitiveness of my ears, my health has improved. I am sorry to hear that dear mother's health does not improve.  . . . We have several cases of smallpox at Guiney's, and I expect you will have to give up all idea of coming to see me until spring, as I fear it would be too much of a risk for you and baby to travel up here.

The other day I received from the citizens of Augusta County a magnificent horse, with an excellent saddle and bridle. It is the most complete riding equipment that I have seen. My kind friends went so far as to get patent stirrups, constructed so as to open and throw the foot from the stirrup in the event of the rider being thrown and the foot hung in the stirrups. How kind is God to us! Oh that I were more grateful!

SOURCE: Mary Anna Jackson, Life and Letters of General Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson), p. 412-3

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Eliza Walter Smith, April 27, 1863

Headquarters Second Brigade, Second Div.,

Fifteenth A. C,

Camp Before Vicksburg, April 27, 1863.

My Dear Mother:

“Man proposes and God disposes.” In my letter of Saturday, I advised you all that we should march to-day, and that night, the heavens opened and the rains descended and the floods came and we remain in statu quo. Last night certain boats ran the blockade of Vicksburg in the midst of a tremendous thunder storm and as the cannon from the enemy's batteries belched forth death and destruction, the elemental war began and heaven's artillery pealed. All night the earth was convulsed, the ear deafened with sound and fury, and to-day the clouds are weeping, the ground lies drenched, and the trees hang their branches as if in despair. The storm is the forerunner of certain lengthened rains which may be expected here at this season, and will retard, if not materially disarrange, the plans heretofore matured. In my former letters I have indicated my want of confidence in their results, and have not yet seen fit to change my opinion. The order of march is rescinded and we await here further orders. You note in the papers frequent mention of the blockade and the running of the same, and for your edification, I will essay some description of what it means, for on one or two nights I have been close within sight and range on shore, and four nights ago in company with General Blair and some naval officers went down with the gunboats on a small steamboat tug, as it is called (literally a “tug of war”), to the scene of the conflict. The ground we occupy, as I have before informed you, is in the shape of a long and narrow horseshoe, and the distance from Young's Point, a landing directly opposite the mouth of the Yazoo River, to the furtherest point of toe of the horseshoe is about six miles. Immediately in front of this latter point are the Court House and principal buildings of Vicksburg, which is situate upon one of a range of high bluffs, one hundred and fifty feet above our level; these bluffs extend around us in the shape of a vast amphitheatre, and at regular intervals their heights are crowned with batteries, while at their base are placed what are called water batteries. A battery, as it is termed, is usually applied to a collection of several guns. The term is also used in speaking of the arrangements made of a parapet to fire over it or through openings in it. I don't want to bore you with technicalities, but a knowledge of them is so often erroneously presupposed that many otherwise good descriptions lose their force. Upon and around this amphitheatre, then, you must imagine one hundred batteries, and as they change from point to point about one hundred and sixty guns. The calibre of these guns is from six pounds, that of the light field piece, to one hundred pound Parrots; of these latter there are but two or three. The major part of their metal, so far as we can ascertain, is from ten to thirty pounds. Now you must know that the pointblank range of six-pounder guns is about six hundred yards, and that of twelve-pounder guns about seven hundred yards; that the chances of hitting a mark are less with pieces of small than of large calibre, owing to windage, the effect of wind, etc. That the rate of firing is about forty seconds a shot for field pieces, and about one minute for twelve-pounders, but that when the enemy is close at hand and deliberate aim not necessary, two rounds may be fired per minute. With these explanations you may have some faint idea of what running the blockade means, when I further inform you that our fleet of transports has been lying from Young's Point along shore down stream to within a short distance of the mouth of the canal; that they have been guarded by gunboats lying at the mouth and a short distance up the Yazoo; that when it is proposed to go around, a dark night is selected or sometimes in a moonlight night after the moon has set. The boats having been protected all round the machinery, in front, and along the side presented to the enemy, with cotton bales, bales of hay, etc., are divested as far as possible of their crew, a full head of steam is had on, and paddling slowly and cautiously till they arrive at the bend, full power is put on, and they go by as best they can, one at a time. The enemy is always on the lookout, and the signal gun is followed by continuous roar from all till the boats pass below Warrenton, five miles from the bend and the terminus of their fortifications. The heavens are lighted up by the beacon fires of the enemy and what are called calcium lights, so constructed as to throw broad and bright reflections on the water, and so point out the passing boats. The flashes of their cannon make almost a continuous line of bright light, the booming reports shake the ground and water, and make boats and houses tremble as by an earthquake. If the transports are convoyed, as has twice been done, by gunboats, these reply, and if the boats are struck, as frequently happens, the cotton is fired by exploding shells, bundles of bales blazing with lurid light are cast into the water, floating for miles, and whirled by the eddies. The river now appears one broad stream of flame, a boat is sunk, one or two are burning, sailors are seen making their way to shore, on boards or boats. The riflemen of the enemy line the shore, and the sharp report of small pieces with the waspish sing of the balls, is occasionally distinguished above all the din. They shoot at those endeavoring to escape; they fire whole volleys at the broadside of the steamer in the hope of killing one man. The pickets on our own lines pace rapidly upon their beat, they are within range, the reserves are upon the shore to give succor to the drowning; outside of this hell all is blackness and the darkness of night. These boats, in fine, go round; the others are helpless, hopeless wrecks. Day dawns, and the river is banked with smoke of the conflict. A body floats by, the entrails are all torn out; it is the pilot, who was cut across the belly by a passing shell. Few lives are lost, for few of the living attempted the voyage; the bodies, if found, will be buried; if not, will become food for the alligator or the gar. A few jokes through the day, and all is forgotten in the next order of march or preparations for another run. The boats are manned by volunteers; there are always enough for the purpose, and yet they know there is no glory to be gained, that their names, even, will never be known beyond their company or regiment, that they must pass within from one hundred and fifty to three hundred yards of the cannon's mouth; batteries manned by men hellbent on their destruction. “Into the jaws of death, into the mouth of hell,” with wild halloo and bacchanal song, a curse if they're hit, an oath if they escape, they go to destruction, mayhap, not to glory. So much for running the blockade. When I feel quite like it, I'll send you a map and explain the country about here, and tell you why we don't take Vicksburg. If anybody should ask you that question, just tell them it is because we have no ground to stand upon. It is all water and swamp for miles below us and every inch of the opposite side disputed. If we get a standpoint for operations, then we drive them, if needs be, at the point of the bayonet. We must wait the turn of events. I see the Admiral made a failure at Charleston. We have just got the news, and Congress with the President determines to cripple the army. Well, “those whom the gods destroy, they first make mad.”

I wish I had something else to write to you about — something that would be more interesting than the army. I am in a close circumscribed sphere, with limited knowledge of the outside world; the 27th of the month, and my latest dates the 15th — of course I am far behind the age. Wife's poetry is very pretty, and Colonel Fisher was pleased to get it. I have just managed to secure his promotion. It will do him but little good; like the others I have loved and lost, he is doomed. I give him about one month more and then I think he will go under. There was another very fine and gallant young man in the regiment, Captain Williams. I had him promoted to Major and the very day his commission arrived, he was seized with small-pox and is now in the pest hospital. He was struck in the breast by a Minie-ball in the charge at Chickasas; he has been very weak since, and I think this is the last of him. I think I shall counsel Colonel Fisher to resign; his is a valuable life.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 291-4

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Eliza Walter Smith, February 4, 1863

Headquarters Second Brigade, Second Division,

Fifteenth Army Corps,

“young's Point,” Before Vicksburg, Feb. 4, 1863.

My Dear Mother:

I could write much on these army matters and the course of events here if it were proper for me to do so; but, of course, my lips are sealed and my pen tabooed. You must rest assured that all the newspaper accounts you have seen of the late battles, and the movements of the Army of the Mississippi, are basely, utterly false. So much has been admitted by the correspondent of the New York . . .  in my presence to General Sherman. Courts martial will develop strange facts. All that you read in the newspapers will only serve to mislead you and confuse your mind. Great plans cannot be revealed. Few of the generals themselves know them. The newspaper men, dangerous to the army as spies giving information to the enemy, closely restricted and carefully watched, nevertheless manage to mingle undetected with the residue of the horde of base camp followers who are always at the heels of the army. Provoked at the restrictions placed upon them, by common agreement they hound down with infamous slander the generals from whom the orders against them emanate. Thus the scoundrel . . . the correspondent of the New York . . . has admitted by letter to General Sherman, as well as verbally in my presence, not only that his article was false, and malicious, and based upon false information received from parties interested in defaming General Sherman and his command, but that he renewed the old story of his insanity for the purpose of gratifying private revenge. . . .  Our country is in an awful condition ; we are verging rapidly upon anarchy. Government has almost ceased to exist save in name. An immense army will be demoralized and crumble by its internal opposing forces. A united people have only to fold their arms and calmly bide the event. God help us, and forgive that political party which sowed the wind, the fruits of which we now reap. This much and this alone I have to say. A soldier has naught to do with politics; the nearer he approaches a machine, an animal without volition, the more valuable he becomes to the service, and perhaps the greater part of our present difficulties grow out of the fact that our soldiers are too intelligent, for they will talk and they will write, and read the papers. Our Army of the Mississippi, and particularly our gallant “Old Division,” have the firmest faith and the most implicit reliance upon Sherman and Grant. Sherman is a splendid soldier, a most honorable gentleman, a pure patriot. Would to God we had more like him to battle for the right. I earnestly pray God he may not be sacrificed. This new infusion I know nothing about. McClernand has been sent off; he is out of place here. Brigadiers have come and are coming. I shall soon be superseded by some one of them, or General Stuart will be compelled to give way and I to him. No change of this kind will be cheerfully submitted to by my command. I have the most substantial evidence that I possess their affection and confidence. You speak about my resigning; it would be utterly impossible for me to resign, if I desired to do so, and an effort on my part to have my resignation accepted would ensure my lasting disgrace. An officer cannot resign in the face of the enemy. But I do not want to resign. With all its terrible hardships and privations, greater than tongue can tell, or pen describe, the life of a soldier is dear to me. I love its dangers and excitements. I am proud of, and delighted with the applause which even a temporary success meets. I am relieved of the miserable, wretched chicanery that surrounds the civilian. I rejoice in the free air. I take kindly to the nomadic life that a field service compels. The romance of chivalry is realized, the ideality of my youth and early manhood brought into actual being. The war horse and the sabre, the glitter of the soldier's trappings, the stirring strains of martial music, the flashing eye, the proud, high bearing, the bivouac fire, the canteen, the song and jest, the perilous scout, the wary picket, the night march, all familiar — this is my life. What I read of, till my cheeks tingled and my eyes suffused, I now do and my comrades do, and like Harry Percy, feel able to “pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon.”

How long we shall stay here, God knows; it is a horrid place now, what it will be in the spring, none can tell; a long fiat swamp a foot above or below — I can't tell which —  the level of the Mississippi, which we are fighting to keep out. That portion not covered with a growth of brake and timber is completely so by cockle burr, that grows to an enormous height and presents an almost impenetrable mass of those little prickly burrs that get into the manes and horsetails, the same kind we have at home, but fearfully exaggerated in size and numbers. It is not quite the season, but after a very little while we shall be enlivened by the pleasant society of alligators and mocassin snakes, mud turtles and their coadjutors. Meanwhile we have every conceivable variety of lice and small-pox, measles and mumps, and other diseases incident to women and children. There is a species of moss you have often heard of and which abounds in this climate — a long hanging and beautiful moss when seen close at hand, but which waving in the forests presents a dreary funereal aspect. It is an article of commerce, and when properly prepared is a material for the stuffing of mattresses. Of course the men, when we camped near where it grew, eagerly sought it to make their beds, and were much disgusted to find it filled with lice. It has to be boiled and bottled to clean it from vermin. So, with the moss, and the transport boats filthy in the extreme, many of which had been hospital boats, the troops were pretty thoroughly infected with the plagues of Egypt, all but the frogs; and the first sun, I reckon, will make them tune their pipes.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 268-71

Major-General Ulysses S. Grant’s General Orders, No. 25, April 22, 1863

GENERAL ORDERS, No. 25.

HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE TENNESSEE,

Milliken's Bend, La., April 22, 1863.

I. Corps, division, and post commanders will afford all facilities for the completion of the negro regiments now organizing in this department. Commissaries will issue supplies, and quartermasters will furnish stores, on the same requisitions and returns as are required from other troops. It is expected that all commanders will especially exert themselves in carrying out the policy of the Administration, not only in organizing colored regiments and rendering them efficient, but also in removing prejudice against them.

II. In accordance with General Orders, No. 85, Adjutant-General's Office, series 1862, army corps commanders will cause to be issued to all convalescent small-pox patients an entire suit of clothing, free of charge, on being reported for duty by their medical officer. It will be the duty of surgeons in charge of pest-houses to see that all clothing worn by the patients during their sickness is destroyed, and all other necessary precautions taken to prevent the spread of the disease. In the absence of corps commanders, issues of clothing required by this order will be directed by the highest military commander nearest the pest-houses.

By order of Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant:

 JNO. A. RAWLINS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 24, Part 3 (Serial No. 38), p. 220

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Sunday, February 22, 1863

Dress parade was dispensed with today on account of the smallpox scare. One case of smallpox was discovered in Company K. Instead of the regular inspection, the doctor vaccinated all who could not show a scar less than a year old.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 101

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Sunday, January 11, 1863

We received orders to be ready to march early in the morning for Memphis. The report in camp is that we are to go on down the Mississippi river. The Fourth Brigade of the Third Division came in at 5 o'clock in the evening and relieved our brigade. A detail from the Eighty-first Illinois Infantry furnished the picket guards to relieve our post where I was on guard with Corporal McBirney and Privates John Esher and George Eicher, all of my company. We are all glad to leave this place, as it is low, damp and unhealthy, which with the smallpox makes it a bad camp.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 93

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Friday, January 9, 1863

It is reported in camp that we are soon to go to Memphis for duty. Several cases of smallpox have broken out in the camp of the Sixteenth Iowa Regiment. All who had not been vaccinated before had to take their medicine. The country along the Charleston & Memphis Railroad from Memphis to Iuka, a distance of about one hundred miles, and for some miles on either side of the line where our armies are in camp and on the march, has been laid waste and is almost desolate. The men are desperate enough for anything. Vacant houses on plantations or in towns and villages have been burned. Many of these were substantial buildings with stone chimneys, which generally remained standing after the burnings. These the boys hilariously spoke of as headstones and on passing them would call out: “Here stands another Tennessee headstone,” or a “Mississippi headstone,” as the case might be.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 92-3

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Wednesday, January 29, 1862

Our company has had a fine time while at Lookout Station and the men are all in good health with the exception of two or three who are suffering from varioloid as a result of vaccination.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 31

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Friday, January 17, 1862

Warm and pleasant. Nothing of importance. Some of the boys are quite sick from the effects of vaccination, though on some of them it did not work. Mine worked fine, and some of the boys took virus from my arm and vaccinated themselves. The surgeon vaccinated a few of the boys as many as four or five times before it took.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 29-30

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Saturday, January 11, 1862

Our company were all vaccinated today as a protection against smallpox. The regimental surgeon came down from California to do the work. Our captain called the company up in line, and every man had to take his medicine.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 29

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Thursday, December 19, 1861

We reached Jefferson City this morning at sunup after an uncomfortable night's ride. The water in the river is very low and it seems that we were fastened on sandbars half the time. Then when the boat was under way, the boat hands, one on each side of the vessel, were constantly calling the soundings, “six feet,” “ten feet,” “no bottom,” etc., in that dreadful, drawling sound, keeping it up all night, and with the thought of that powder on board — it was not a good night for sleeping. But we landed, and marching out to the camp, pitched our tents where we were before. We got back all safe and sound, with one exception, for one of our company took the smallpox and was left at the pesthouse at Boonville, with only his bunk-mate to care for him. The weather is quite cool.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 24-5

From The 11th Iowa Regiment

FRIEND SANDERS:  In your issue of yesterday morning your types made two mistakes, rather mortifying to a correspondent.  Two say that two men were “mortally wounded,” while one of them still survives, with a fair prospect of recovery, is hardly correct.  I intended to say “mutually wounded.”  Instead, also of saying that certain ones “hug slavery as the dearest part of their souls,” it should read “dearest pet,” 8c.  Illegible manuscript was probably the cause of these mistakes.

The 11^th regiment has been again subdivided.  On Saturday evening last, an order was received by Col. Hare to send two companies, together with two companies of the 3^rd Iowa Cavalry, all under command of Major Caldwell, to take post at Mexico, on the North Missouri railroad.  The two companies of our regiment (D and F,) marched, of course, on Sunday as usual.  The cavalry followed next day, and all reached Mexico on Monday evening.

We had been informed by acting assistant Adjutant General Wm. T. Clark that the Iowa 6^th, 8^th, 11^th, and 13^th, together with a battalion of the 3^rd Iowa Cavalry and an Ohio battery, were about to be brigaded under Gen. McKean, and moved to Tennessee.  This was good news to the boys, and when the order above-named was made known all seemed disappointed.  It may be, however, that the forming of this new brigade is only temporarily delayed.  It is understood to be the plan of Gen. Halleck to move the Federal troops from Missouri just as fast as the State militia shall be organized.  The Union people of Missouri fear as to the results of this plan, inasmuch as so long as Price is alive and at large the secessionists will still consider their cause as hopeful, and these rebels have little respect for or fear of State troops.  One regiment from Iowa is more formidable in their estimation than four times their number of Missourians.

Secessionism is by no means dead in Missouri, but everywhere, in every neighborhood, rebels and desperadoes are ready at any moment, either singly or in bands, to pounce upon the property of Union men, and would not hesitate to take the life of any who should stand in their way.  Nothing short of the death or capture of Price, or the complete subjugation of the rebels in nearly or quite all the other States, will finish up the work in Missouri.

The health of the 11^th has greatly improved within the last month, though, I am sorry to say, there has been quite an increase in the number of cases of small pox.  This disease however, much as it is dreaded, has proved to be far less fatal with us, than measles or pneumonia.  We have lost 33 in all, and only 2 of small pox out of more than 50 cases.

I am at home – Durant – for a few days, on leave of absence, expecting to return, if improving health permits, about the 20^th of the present month, when I shall be happy to carry messages or tokens from friends to any of the boys or officers.

But “O my!” what a winter you are having up here in March.  On Monday last.  I road 15 miles in an open buggy, and found myself covered with mud.  Yesterday – Wednesday – I reached your city, and found the Railroad blocked with snow. – We had in Missouri, the week before Christmas, about four inches of snow, which lasted nearly a week, since which time the ground has scarcely been covered.  I saw but very little snow on Tuesday, on the line of the Chicago and St. Louis Railroad – much of the way none.  In several instances the farmers were dragging down the corn stalks preparatory to plowing. – But here in Iowa king winter reigns supreme.  Still I would rather live in Iowa than in Missouri.  To say nothing of society and other things, the weather is far more even, and the climate more healthy. – And so far as the state of society is concerned – morals, religion and everything which goes to make up good society – Missouri bears no comparison with Iowa. – Should our more southern sister ever get rid of slavery, as undoubtedly she will, the way will be opened for an improvement in many respects.  But a generation must probably pass away, and a large number of a different class of people must enter the State before she can overtake Iowa in many things most desirable.  In the matter of fruit raising, Missouri is ahead of us, and will remain so.  But all things considered, a residence in Iowa is and will be at least for one or two generations, for more desirable to right minded people than in Missouri.

Yours truly,

CHAPLAIN,

11^th Iowa Regiment.

DURANT, March 6, 1862

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, March 10, 1862, p. 2

From the 11th Regiment

FULTON, Mo., Feb. 25, 1862.

EDITOR OF THE GAZETTE:– Dear Sir;  The report in my last, that both the men mortally shot were dead was incorrect.  Both were reported dead on the 16^th, so it was for a time believed, but, Mr. Williams is still living, and it is thought he may recover.

I should have made the correction at an earlier day, except that I have been a week on my back, from a sever attack of pleura-pneumonia.  I am better, but not able to leave my room.

The two men above named, Overton and Williams, are said to have exchanged very affecting notes of penitence and mutual forgiveness, before the former left the world.  They are said to be firm friends – their differences being of a temporary nature, and the result of misunderstanding.  How much more desirable is that state of society found in New England, Iowa and elsewhere at [the] North, where little differences among friends can be settled without resort to powder and balls.  How sad that state of morals, where even Christianity tolerates not only the carrying of deadly weapons, but the shooting down of a fellow being for very slight offences.  In this as in a thousand other ways does slavery show its blighting effect.  One must see to know – and then he cannot describe how fearful is the influence of this system in crushing out all that is good and true in humanity and even in religion.  Nothing good can ever flourish at least, where slavery exists.  Everybody seems conscious of this, and everybody who has slaves, hugs the system as the dearest part of his soul.

Feb. 26.  The small-pox is sadly on the increase among our soldiers.  Four new cases yesterday.  It is mostly of a mild form, and only two as yet have died.

Since I have been confined we have lost two men, Doran, of Co. F, and Vaun of Co. A – making in all some 33.

We know of no prospects of moving.  The papers locate us, as also several other regiments, in almost every part of the south and west.  But friends at home may be assured that the two detachments of the 11^th Iowa are, the one at Fulton and the other at California, Missouri.

Yours.

CHAPLAIN.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, March 5, 1862, p. 2

From The 11th Iowa Regiment

FULTON, MO., Feb. 15.

EDITOR OF THE GAZETTE. – Dear Sir:  A sad shooting affair occurred at the Post office in this place last evening – the parties, a Mr. Overton and a Mr. Williams – two prominent citizens, and both good Union men.  They were in the inner room of the Post office, when an altercation took place concerning the position of the Postmaster, and some other local matters.  Revolvers were drawn by both at nearly the same instant, and both fired – one twice and the other once.  Mr. Overton was shot through the groin, and Mr. Williams through the breast.  Two men of our regiment were present – waiting for the mail – and assisted instantly in seizing the combatants, but too late.  Both men are alive today, but neither is expected to recover.  One of the balls passed through the glass of the boxes and seriously injured a colored man in the outer room.  No one else was hurt, though quite a number of persons were present. – This sad occurrence causes great rejoicing among the secessionists.  First intimation some of us had of the affair, was the shouting and cheering of the prisoners confined in the third story of our quarter[s], to whom the news was foolishly reported by one of our officers.  It was nearly 11 o’clock, and most of the prisoners were asleep, but all were aroused, and so great was their joy that they actually rolled on the floor and jumped over each other.  The killing of two such men – each by the hand of the other – is an event, in their estimation, of almost as great importance as a rebel victory.  To the Union people of this city and county, scarcely any event could have been more sad that the mutual destruction of two such men.

Speaking of our prisoners, we have now twenty-six among whom are one merchant, one minister, three doctors, and one major formerly of Price’s army and wounded at the battle Wilson’s Creek.  Some of them are desperate men, who would kill every one of us if they could.  Others are mild, and would shrink from shedding human blood, but all probably have aided rebellion in some way.  Arrests are made almost every day, but when there is no clear proof of complicity with rebels, the oath is administered, heavy bonds required in doubtful cases, and the prisoners are discharged.  A military commission has been appointed, whose duty it will be to examine and decide the fate of those held in confinement.  This board consists of five officers of the 11th Iowa and the 3d Iowa cavalry and will be in session next week.

This week two brigades from Sedalia and Otterville have passed through this place, on their way to St. Louis.  The traveling was terrible and the progress very slow – not more than ten or twelve miles per day, and men and animals giving out at that. – The first cavalcade was two hours passing a given point, and the last two and a half.  What could have been the motive for sending these troops on such a march, when a railroad and a river were both at hand, and when their destination would seem to demand dispatch, is a mystery.  Major Generals ought to know what they are about.  Perhaps they do.

This week two of our men died in one day with small pox – the first deaths by this disease in the regiment – and on the same day another man died very suddenly of laryngitis.  One of our number also died at St. Louis last week making thirty in all.  The names of the four above mentioned are Wm. Sheets and Marcelon Smith, of Co. G; Sylvester Britt, of Co. C; and Richard Garland, of Co. I.  We have three men very sick, two of whom have been in the hospital a long time, and are thought to be gaining slowly.  The other is in a critical condition, but may recover.

SABBATH EVENING, Feb. 15. – Overton and Williams are both dead – a sad, very sad result of passion, and of carrying deadly weapons.  A thick gloom has settled down on this community, as both these men were highly respected in this city and county. – Mr. Overton was a druggist, and Mr. Williams a hardware merchant.  The former was an elder in the Presbyterian church.

This afternoon, by invitation of several of the prisoners who are Methodists, the Chaplain of the cavalry – who is also a Methodist – preached in the prison room.  He gave them a very good discourse on the character of Daniel, and closed with some pretty strong Union sentiments.  A majority, perhaps, received the exhortation with apparent meekness, but some raved.  One of them – a doctor – remarked to me at the close, bitterly, that “if the Nebuchadnezzar of this country” – naming President Lincoln – “could be sent to eat grass like the ox for seven years, the trouble of the nation would be at an end.”  I might have replied that Jeff. Davis more nearly resembled the tyrant king than does our good President, but not choosing to hold any discussion with such men I did not.

We have heard the report of heavy guns this afternoon in the direction of Jefferson City, and the presumption is that Fort Donelson is captured.  But as we are 25 miles from telegraph we must wait for the news till to-morrow.  Our isolation is a serious drawback to the comfort of our otherwise comfortable position.  But if Uncle Sam needs us here, we must try and be contented.  Inactivity and want of excitement are in some respects harder to bear than fatigue and danger, but if the former are to be our allotment – as now appears probable – in sustaining our most excellent Government, we will endeavor to endure and bear patiently.  The glory of this endurance will be less than that of the battlefield, but the service may not be less important, while the agonizing suspense of friends at home will be far less.

Yours truly,

CHAPLAIN,

11th Iowa.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 21, 1862, p. 2

Medical View Of The Condition Of The Iowa Troops At St. Louis

(By D. L. McGugin, M. D., Surgeon and Medical Inspector, Benton Barracks.)

( Concluded. )

The mumps came among the men to assert their right to inflict pain and suffering and as if to cap the climax of eruptive diseases, there have been a number of cases of small pox and varioloid. From this last the regiments from Iowa have escaped thus far, and as they have all been vaccinated it is hoped they are fully protected.

It is a subject of wonder to me that so many aft attained to their majority without having contracted the measles. It is curious to observe that an equal proportion of each regiment have taken the disease, which leads me to the conclusion that vital statistics would show a certain per cent, greater than is supposed, who have never suffered from the disease, in every community.

In my desire to afford all the satisfaction in my power, I have been compelled to resort to some medical terms, the better to convey the information so much desired on the part of the people of the State. Almost every intelligent individual is, or ought to be informed in some degree of the anatomy and physiology of the lungs and of respiration and therefore will pardon me if I may not have expressed myself as plainly as I could have done. In looking over what I have written I do not see that I could have resorted to simpler terms that would have been as expressive on the conditions, with all the particular circumstances.

Such then were the chief agents in the production of so much disease and death among the soldiers, and which has startled and surprised the friends, relatives and neighbors of those who have enlisted and are now in the service. If you will but obtain a record of the sick and then compare the mortality, the latter will not appear so startling after all. For instance, in the 3d Michigan there are in quarters in one day reported to me 265 sick and in Hospital 50, and that regiment has averaged 250 in all during the past month. I have not at hand the statistics, but when they come to be examined it will be found that the result will not prove so startling after all.

And yet it is sad to witness even the amount we have had and I am free to believe that it could not be averted. The regimental hospitals, some of which are in private dwellings which were the property, in some instances, of rebel sympathizers and aiders and abettors of treason, were not calculated for hospitals, although large and fine residences. They could not be regulated very well, and it was very difficult to get the nurses to understand their duty and to perform it even when they knew it. Men nurses are not as neat nor as thoughtful as the females, either in keeping the apartments or apparel clean, or in preparing food properly for the patients. And yet, after much care and instruction they are now in such a condition as to call forth the highest encomiums from the President of the Sanitary Commission of St. Louis as regards their condition.

I have enumerated some of the diseases which in their several forms have seized upon the soldiers and have carried many of them to their silent tombs. I have seen a number stricken down with disease and die, who had fought bravely upon the battle field and escaped the balls and shot of the enemy. I witnessed a touching spectacle in which the hospital of the 7th Iowa Infantry, (Col. Lauman’s,) which had covered itself all over with the glory in the bloody struggle of Belmont. Two brave young men had languished for some weeks with pneumonia, and upon my daily visits I was particularly interested in them. They appeared to be about twenty years of age, but their countenances, although changed by disease, still wore an expression of intelligence and refinement. One day I left them without hope of recovery for them, although Surgeon Witter had exerted every effort in their behalf. Their youthful vigor had made a strong stand against disease, but they were drawn down lower and lower, until finally the great conqueror Death triumphed. Upon my visit next morning I found they had both died within an hour of each other, and their comrades were performing the sad duty of preparing them for their place in the silent sand. There they lay; their lungs had ceased to breath – the heart to propel the vital current, and all was still and death quiet and stony stillness marked their finely moulded forms: for despite their lingering illness, they still preserved more or less of the fineness of outline and symmetry of proportion which characterizes the form of youth in healthful vigor. I thought, as I looked with admiration upon their lifeless forms, what retribution was in reservation for those who had caused the necessity for such multiplied and great sacrifices. Poor fellows; I thought, too, of their mothers, sisters and friends; what great sacrifices they had made for their country, in giving these youths that our country and its institutions may be restored and perpetuated.

“They now sleep their last sleep – they have fought their last battle. No sound can awake them to glory again.”

From the spirit of the synopsis of the lecture of the reverend Gentleman, I was led to the inference that he thought a reformation was needed among the officers in the matter of caring for the men. In this I may be in error; but, if not, I deem it my duty to say that our officers displayed a most commendable interest in the well being of the men, from the lowest to the highest in command. But it was impossible for them to avoid the silent and intangible agents, which have been so potent and active in predisposing and exciting disease. – My opportunities for observation are equal to those of any other in the cantonment; and I cannot now see when I look back how these silent agencies for mischief could have been thwarted, unless the commanders of regiments had disobeyed orders, and taken their men upon some knoll, and there pitched their tents, and thus to suffer a violation of general orders making them liable to be put under arrest and tried by a court martial. Those that were sent from these barracks to the field, and the parts of regiments that had leave to erect their tents and take their quarters in them, have comparatively escaped disease, proving clearly and conclusively the correctness of my opinion, some time since embodied in a report to headquarters. Men in time of war must obey their superior officers. The Colonel has his power; the Brigadier General controls and commands him; the Major General holds the reins upon him again; while he again is subject to supreme command. It is a little despotism from beginning to end, and it is necessary that it should be so, otherwise all would be commanders and all would be leaders.

Another fact must be observed and considered, and that is, that this government has done more in the same space of time to raise, equip, and supply an army of its immense size than any nation has ever done; and that, too, under the most embarrassing circumstances. The magnitude of this work would not allow it to provide such comforts and accommodations as the majority of the men who compose it find at home. I am proud to know that the government has been able to accomplish so much, and carry out so grand a scheme. Where its management had to be entrusted to men inexperienced in military matters and the wants of the soldiers, it could not be very reasonably expected that every part would be perfect, or that every defect would be foreseen by those who are wanting in experience, for by this we learn facts which cannot be gained by any other means.

I therefore think it unfair for those who have little to do in the labor, toil, and responsibilities of so great an undertaking, to find fault when they themselves do not suffer any of the discomforts, and speak disparagingly of the conduct of others, when they know so little of the circumstances by which they are surrounded and the difficulties which they encounter. Persons enjoying the comforts of a happy home, with every blessing around them, a blazing cheerful fire in the winter’s cold to defend against the howling blasts which are provoked into “angry soughs” because they are not permitted to enter in; who sleep upon soft beds or couches of ease; who have every delicacy, and enjoy the liberty of going and coming at all hours without interruption, whose actions are free and untrammeled; who are enjoying the security purchased and preserved by the sacrifices of those in the service of their country; it is quite an easy matter for these to find fault, exaggerate, and misrepresent. – Look at the soldier! He is out early in the morning whether it rains or shines, whether it is calm or stormy, whether it is wet or dry, he must be abroad, and whatever betide he must endure it. He tramps, tramps, tramps, whether the mud be knee deep, whether it be frozen and therefore rough – whether it be a glare of sleet or ice, he must endure it until the hour comes when he is allowed to prepare his dinner, without the show of silver plate, china, fine steel knives and three pronged silver forks with napkins and their rings to boot. Tin cups and tin plates, pot-metal knives and forks, accompanied with iron spoons are refinements in the army. The sound of the bugle or the roll of the drum calls them out again, and it is drill again. The night may be passed on guard, and no matter how pitiless the storm, they must endure it, because the sleepless guardians of the night. At nine the “taps” put out the few lights, and they retire to sleep upon their hard bunks, or if in tents, upon the ground, to rise again at dawn of day to partake of their crude food, and then to drill or parade again. And yet these men complain less than those at home, and find less fault, because they know more about everything and readily understand the whole ponderous machinery.

Some of the papers in our state have belched forth invectives against the officers connected with the regiments, and in a particular manner the medical officers. I do not deny that there as some medical men in the service who dishonor it and their profession. The reason is, that they are very often selected by men who are not always competent to judge of medical acquirements. But in the main, the medical men in this cantonment will compare favorably with those in any department of the service; and most certainly they have been attentive faithful and laborious in their application to duty. I have had opportunities afforded me with their efforts, their constancy and fidelity to the trusts imposed upon them. The people should know that the surgeon of a regiment, if he [does] his duty faithfully and well, has the heaviest responsibility imposed upon him of all the officers in the army. The commander may lead his men into battle and win a victory, and have his name inscribed high in the lists of fame, yet not a word is said of the surgeon who has dressed the wounds and saved the flickering spark of life as it was fast oozing out of some torn artery or large vein. These mangled limbs, these mutilated forms have purchased the victory and paid the highest price ever paid for the fame and renown of their leader; and yet he who saves to life, the world, and their families, these precious materials, although maimed and deformed, rests from his labors and his name is not even mentioned. – “The Surgeons were busy with the wounded” is the alpha and omega of all that is said of them. They are a class of men desirable only from necessity. Officers high in command, will here their suggestions and adopt what their own limited conception of the sanitary laws may appear to them as necessary. And yet the secular world are too prone to reflect upon those who, on the one hand has to contend against a secret, and intangible enemy, who only shows that he is abroad by the number of victims shown by the way, and on the other, their hands are tied while making the attempt.

To defend the commanding officers and surgeons, and to show what causes existed for so much sickness and mortality, that the people may know and understand; have been the motives which have dictated this communication, which I regret is quite too long. I have been sure that the people did not comprehend the reason because they had been taught to know that these barracks have cost such large sums of money, and per consequence the comforts were in proportion. This should have and might have been, and yet not one officer in all these barracks had a finger in their construction.

I trust your lecturer has recounted these facts, and if he have not, because it was not in the immediate sphere of his duties, you will please give this to the people through your columns, and you will satisfy those who may confide in the views and the conclusions, and oblige.

Yours very respectfully,

D. L. McGUGIN

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 14, 1862, p. 2

NOTE: This is the second of a two part article. For its first part, please click HERE.