Major-General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Mead, October 19, 1864

Headquarters Army Of The Potomac, October 19, 1864.

I am very glad you went to see Mrs. Birney. The telegraph to-day announces her husband's decease. This has shocked every one here, for no one had any idea he was so ill. General Birney is undoubtedly a loss to the army. He was a very good soldier, and very energetic in the performance of his duties. During the last campaign he had quite distinguished himself. I feel greatly for his poor wife, who is thus so suddenly deprived of her husband and protector. When he left here he was said to be threatened with a serious attack, but it was hoped change of air and being at home would keep it off. He must have been much more sick than persons generally, or he himself, were aware of, because he was very reluctant to leave.

To-day I had a visit from the Rev. Dr. Pyne, of Washington, who has come to the army to visit a poor creature, a Frenchman, who deserted the service and then re-enlisted to get the large bounties. He was sentenced to be shot, but at the earnest solicitation of Dr. Pyne, and of his representations, I remitted the sentence to imprisonment at the Dry Tortugas.

I saw General Grant to-day, and we had a laugh over the ridiculous canard of my being relieved. He then told me he was asked in Washington if it was true, it being reported at the same time that he had resigned. These foolish reports were doubtless gotten up for political purposes and to affect the elections.

To-day Robert Meade¹ went down the river in the flag-of-truce boat, having been exchanged. I saw a young navy officer who was captured at the same time and exchanged with Robert. He said Robert was well, but thin, as he had felt his captivity a good deal. His mother will be delighted to have him once more at home.

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1 Nephew of General Meade.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 2, p. 234-5

Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Lyman to Elizabeth Russell Lyman, Tuesday, May 17, 1864

Our Headquarters were moved to the left, and back of the Anderson house. We rode, in the morning, over, and staid some time at the house, one of the best I have seen in Virginia. It was a quite large place, built with a nest of out-houses in the southern style. They have a queer way of building on one thing after another, the great point being to have a separate shed or out-house for every purpose, and then a lot more sheds and outhouses for the negroes. You will find a carpenter's shop, a kindly man in conversation, despite his terrible looks. . . . The waggoners and train rabble and stragglers have committed great outrages in the rear of this army. Some of the generals, particularly Birney and Barlow, have punished pillagers in a way they will not forget; and they will be shot if they do not stop outrages on the inhabitants. The proper way to stop the grosser acts is to hang the perpetrators by the road where the troops pass, and put a placard on their breasts. I think I would do it myself, if I caught any of them. All this proceeds from one thing — the uncertainty of the death penalty through the false merciful policy of the President. It came to be a notorious thing that no one could be executed but poor friendless wretches, who had none to intercede for them; so that the blood of deserters that was shed was all in vain — there was no certainty in punishment, and certainty is the essence of all punishment. Now we reap the disadvantage in a new form. People must learn that war is a thing of life or death: if a man won't go to the front he must be shot; but our people can't make up their minds to it; it is repulsive to the forms of thought, even of most of the officers, who willingly expose their own lives, but will shrink from shooting down a skulker.

SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox, p. 115-7

Diary of Private Charles H. Lynch: May 31, 1864

This morning still finds us in camp on the battle-field, near New Market. Orders from the General's headquarters. Details have been made to forage and sent out from headquarters. Inspection and battalion drill by our Colonel, Ely. The first since his return from prison. The Colonel, on the quiet, restored to their former rank the non-commissioned officers reduced by General Hunter for foraging. They were all good boys, and driven to it by hunger. I often wonder why we must have this awful war. This is a beautiful country, at this time quiet and peaceful, but the horrors of war liable to come at most any time.

SOURCE: Charles H. Lynch, The Civil War Diary, 1862-1865, of Charles H. Lynch 18th Conn. Vol's, p. 65

Diary of Private Charles H. Lynch: May 30, 1864

Owing to our rations running very low some of the boys took the liberty to go foraging, going without a permit from the General's headquarters. They were rounded up by cavalry scouts, placed under arrest, taken to headquarters, where they received a severe reprimand from General Hunter. All were punished. Non-commissioned officers reduced to the ranks. Privates made to carry a heavy fence rail over the shoulder and walk a beat for four hours. The lack of rations and seeing the boys undergoing a severe punishment made a gloomy time for us. The life of a soldier in the field is no picnic. We can stand most anything but hunger. It did seem very strange to us that we could not forage in the enemy's country. We are seventy miles from our base of supplies, which must be brought to us in wagons under a strong guard. Cavalry must do that duty. Reported that they have much trouble from the guerillas under Mosby and others. They keep concealed in the woods along the pike. From the hills they can be seen far up and down the valley. Weather cloudy and muggy.

SOURCE: Charles H. Lynch, The Civil War Diary, 1862-1865, of Charles H. Lynch 18th Conn. Vol's, p. 64

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Sunday, April 12, 1863

Eight gunboats went down the river today. The boys feel quite lively and are anxious to get into action again. We had company inspection in the morning and regimental inspection in the afternoon, with dress parade at 5 o'clock. Some of the men of our regiment were caught in a trap today. They went up into a pigeon house a short distance from camp and were having a game of “chuck luck” when someone informed the officer of the day, who took some guards, surrounded the house, entered and made a quick dive for the rubber poncho, taking all the money lying on the figures, almost $200, and arresting all the participants. He put the fellows in the guardhouse and turned over the money to the hospital steward.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 109

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Wednesday, November 5, 1862

It was cold last night to lie in open bivouac. A cold northwest wind was blowing, and although we built fires to sleep by, yet the night was very uncomfortable, for while one was warm on the side next to the fire he was freezing on the other. We lay still all day to rest, but many of the boys slipped out in small squads for forage; they ran all over the country and fetched in fresh pork by the wholesale. I was in a squad of six with our corporal and we came in with our haversacks filled with sweet potatoes. On returning to camp, we passed too close to the colonel’s tent, and he happened to be standing outside taking a sun bath. He called the corporal to his side, asked him where he had been, where he belonged, and taking out his penknife, cut from the corporal's blouse his chevrons and gave him an order to his captain, reducing him to the ranks.¹ The rest of us passed on to our tents. While we were out foraging, the colonel issued an order directing each orderly sergeant in the regiment to have his company fall in line every thirty minutes for roll call, and every man not answering to his name was either to be put in the guardhouse or on extra duty. I was caught, but being a pretty good friend of the orderly, I got off easy. He ordered me to carry a kettle of water to the company cook, telling me that since this was my first offense, he would let me off with that. None of the boys was punished very hard.

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¹ This, it has always seemed to me, was a mean, contemptible thing for the colonel to do. — A. G. D.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 81

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Monday, October 27, 1862

Our entire regiment was at work on the fortifications. Nathan Chase and William Cross of my company had a fight today, all over some trivial matter. It seems that it is enough to have to fight the rebels without the men fighting among themselves. They were put into the guardhouse.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 78

Court Martials

Lieut. H. A. Webb, of the 27th regiment Ohio Volunteers, was recently tried by Court Martial in St. Louis, on a charge of “absence without leave,” and was sentenced to forfeit his monthly pay proper for three months and to be reprimanded by the commanding officer of the Department.  Private, Geo. H. Holland, Company I, 24th Indiana was found guilty of desertion and sentenced to be shot.  The sentence was afterwards mitigated to hard labor with a ball and chain during the war, with the forfeiture of all pay, which is a good deal worse than to be shot.  Private Jeremiah Raney, of the same company and regiment, was found guilty of the same offence and sentenced “to forfeit all pay and allowances which are or may become due him up to the 31st day of January 1862, excepting the just dues of the sutler and laundress, and to refund the United States the cost of his apprehension, thirty dollars, to have half his head closely shaved, and to stand for three hours daily on three successive days, on the head of a barrel, on the parade ground of his regiment with a placard around his neck on which will be printed the word ‘Deserter.’”  At the expiration of this sentence he will be dishonorably discharged from the service.  Jesse Fussell was also tried for violating the laws of war in robbing and plundering the property of Wm. H. Page, a loyal citizen in Missouri, and taking a gun from another loyal citizen.  He was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment during the war.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 2

The Way They Do Things In Dixie

The Rockingham (Va.) Register, on the plea that the Union men in the border counties are giving information to the Union forces prejudicial to the Southern Confederacy, thus proposes to make short work of them.

“That we have such enemies, and a good many such, in the border counties of Loudon, Jefferson, Berkley, Morgan and Hampshire, is well known, and we think the sooner they are driven over the river, imprisoned, shot or hanged, the better for us.”

A correspondent of a Cincinnati journal, in the course of his remarks about matters and things in the Southwest, says:

“One item about the rebels.  The Physician of Rosseau’s – I disremember the doctor’s name – has been in possession a brand which has been used to mark suspicious men in the rebel army.  Numbers of Germans and Irishmen, to his own knowledge, have been marked with it.  The iron is heated, and the letters C. A. (Confederate Army) burnt on some parts of their body.  The purpose is to detect them should they try to desert.”

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 8, 1862, p. 2

Horace Weaver, of Winsted, Conn., writes home . . .

. . . from camp at Washington that he has just “carried the log” for three hours as the penalty for shooting a hog while on sentinel duty.  He had orders to “let nothing pass,” and after a short tussle with the porker, he had to give in or shoot.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 8, 1862, p. 2