It has been a tolerably quiet day, though there was a quite
sharp fight at evening on our left — the Rebels badly used up. The people in
Richmond must hear plainly the booming of our cannon: they scarcely can feel
easy, for we are closing in on the old ground of McClellan. Fair Oaks was two
years ago this very day. What armies have since been destroyed and rebuilt!
What marchings and countermarchings, from the James to the Susquehanna! Still
we cling to them — that is the best feature. There is, and can be, no doubt of
the straits to which these people are now reduced; particularly, of course, in
this distracted region; there is nothing in modern history to compare with the
conscription they have. They have swept this part of the country of all persons
under 50, who could not steal away. I have just seen a man of 48, very much
crippled with rheumatism, who said he was enrolled two days ago. He told them
he had thirteen persons dependent on him, including three grandchildren (his
son-in-law had been taken some time since); but they said that made no
difference; he was on his way to the rendezvous, when our cavalry crossed the
river, and he hid in the bushes, till they came up. I offered him money for
some of his small vegetables; but he said: “If you have any bread, I would
rather have it. Your cavalry have taken all the corn I had left, and, as for
meat, I have not tasted a mouthful for six weeks.” If you had seen his eyes
glisten when I gave him a piece of salt pork, you would have believed his
story. He looked like a man who had come into a fortune. “Why,” said he, “that
must weigh four pounds — that would cost me forty dollars in Richmond! They
told us they would feed the families of those that were taken; and so they did
for two months, and then they said they had no more meal.” What is even more
extraordinary than their extreme suffering, is the incomprehensible philosophy
and endurance of these people. Here was a man, of poor health, with a family
that it would be hard to support in peacetimes, stripped to the bone by Rebel
and Union, with no hope from any side, and yet he almost laughed when he
described his position, and presently came back with a smile to tell me that
the only two cows he had, had strayed off, got into a Government herd, and “gone
up the road” — that's the last of them. In Europe, a man so situated
would be on his knees, tearing out handfuls of hair, and calling on the Virgin
and on several saints. There were neighbors at his house; and one asked me if I
supposed our people would burn his tenement? “What did you leave it for?” I
asked. To which he replied, in a concise way that told the whole: “Because
there was right smart of bullets over thaar!” The poorest people seem usually
more or less indifferent or adverse to the war, but their bitterness increases
in direct ratio to their social position. Find a well-dressed lady, and you
find one whose hatred will end only with death — it is unmistakable, though
they treat you with more or less courtesy. Nor is it extraordinary: there is
black everywhere; here is one that has lost an only son; and here another that
has had her husband killed. People of this class are very proud and spirited;
you can easily see it; and it is the officers that they supply who give the
strong framework to their army. They have that military and irascible nature so
often seen among an aristocracy that was once rich and is now poor; for you
must remember that, before the war, most of these landowners had ceased to hold
the position they had at the beginning of this century. There, that is enough
of philosophizing; the plain fact being that General Robert Lee is entrenched
within cannon range, in a sort of way that says, “I will fight you to my last
gun and my last battalion!” We had not well got our tents pitched before the
restless General, taking two or three of us, posted off to General Hancock.
That is his custom, to take two or three aides and as many orderlies and go
ambling over the country, confabbing with the generals and spying round the
country roads. There, of course, was Hancock, in a white shirt (his man Shaw
must have a hard time of it washing those shirts and sheets) and with a cheery
smile. His much persecuted aides-de-camp were enjoying a noon-tide sleep, after
their fatigues. The indefatigable Mitchell remarked that there were many
wood-ticks eating him, but that he had not strength to fight them! The firing
was so heavy that, despite the late hour, General Meade ordered Hancock and
Burnside to advance, so as to relieve Warren. Only Gibbon had time to form for
an attack, and he drove back their front line and had a brief engagement, while
the other commands opened more or less with artillery; and so the affair ended
with the advantage on our side. — The swamp magnolias are in flower and the
azaleas, looking very pretty and making a strong fragrance.
SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s
Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness
to Appomattox, p. 132-4
