Diary of Private William S. White, August 31, 1862

Rained hard all night, but I managed to get under a wagon and it interfered but little with my rest.

SOURCE: William S. White, A Diary of the War; or What I Saw of It, p. 127

Diary of Private John J. Wyeth, February 28, 1863

For the last two days we have had no drill out of doors, and very little guard. It has rained steadily. The "Dudley Buck" arrived yesterday with a large mail, and a lot of boxes have also made their appearance. We were mustered for two months' pay this forenoon, and in the afternoon, between the showers, began one of a series of base-ball games between men of the 23d and ours; but the rain postponed it to the dim future. We find our barracks just the thing this weather, much better than tents, and thank our stars and the United States Government for them.

SOURCE: John Jasper Wyeth, Leaves from a Diary Written While Serving in Co. E, 44 Mass. Dep’t of North Carolina from September 1862 to June 1863, p. 40

Diary of Private John J. Wyeth, March 3, 1863

Rain, and nothing but rain; only the cleanest companies relieved, and we caught it again, and some of us are checked as extra guard. And now for the first time our regiment is broken. Two companies, and "B," going yesterday on picket at Batchelder's Creek, a few miles out of New Berne, towards Kinston. We have been idle now quite a while, and think it most time to be moved. Some say we are going as provost guard down town, but all we can do is to wait and take what comes. Frank Learned has been appointed corporal in place of Ramsey, who joined the band.

SOURCE: John Jasper Wyeth, Leaves from a Diary Written While Serving in Co. E, 44 Mass. Dep’t of North Carolina from September 1862 to June 1863, pp. 40-1

Diary of Private John J. Wyeth, March 5, 1863

It has cleared up and is quite cold. We sent off a large mail this morning. Last night we came very near having our barracks destroyed. The funnel of one of the stoves dropped against the roof, igniting the boards, and as we had all turned in, it burned through the roof before it was discovered by a sentry. After burning a hole five feet square we mastered it, and turned in again.

SOURCE: John Jasper Wyeth, Leaves from a Diary Written While Serving in Co. E, 44 Mass. Dep’t of North Carolina from September 1862 to June 1863, p. 41

Diary of Private John J. Wyeth, March 13, 1863

There has been nothing worthy of mention since the last date, excepting the heavy rain, till last night, when we had an opera, "Il Recruitio," which was excellently rendered. Gen. Foster and lady, and other officers and their ladies, attended; the two barracks of "F" and "B" being filled from top to floor.

SOURCE: John Jasper Wyeth, Leaves from a Diary Written While Serving in Co. E, 44 Mass. Dep’t of North Carolina from September 1862 to June 1863, p. 41

Private William O. Gulick, September 15, 1861

Camp Warren, Sept. 15th, 1861

It is now a little more than a week since I was with you, Although it is but a short time It seems to me about a month. I have seen so many strange and new things in moveing about and liveing as I have that although I am not homesick the time when I look back upon it seems long. You may think strange my writing with a ledpencil but it is so much handier as I am siting on the ground with a board on my lap. I had a letter written to send home, when John³ came down to Davenport and as I did not know when we would leave there and I thought John could carry all the news I did not send it, I suppose John told you all about our camp at Davenport, well it is much better than it is here for here we have nothing but tents. They are smaller than the one we had [illegible], and Thirteen have to mess and sleep in two of them. The first thing may be you would like to know is about my traveling after I left home &s (I did not have time to tell John much) About one oclock I left Lyons⁴ and after a pleasant trip of five hours arrived at Davenport or Camp McClellan⁵ which as John will tell you is very pleasantly situated. There was preaching at Camp Mc.C. evry Sunday I attended and heard a good discourse by Bishop Lee⁶ first Sunday after I left home, I bought me a Bible and some medicine at D. The morning after John stayed with us we were ordered to get ready to move from camp in one hour. We were told it was to go to Burlington In less than half that time every one was ready to march for the boat, We were taken in front of the Burtis House⁷ at Davenport and sworn in servise of U. S. I beleive John was there in time to see us, After takeing the Boat we had a pleasant trip one hundred miles down the great river We had dinner and supper at Leefingwells⁸ expence I was told, We arrived at Burlington about 10 oclock P. M. Was marched through the dust to Camp Warren a distance of 1½ mile from town, we were met by Isaac's⁹ company and after many hearty cheers went in quarters with them for the night. This camp is very comfortable although they are nothing but shanties most of the boys sleep on the ground because they did not know how hard it would be in wet times Friday first day in Camp Warren it rained all day so we had to stay where we could untill we could get and put up our tents. friday night it rained very hard and about midnight I found my self swiming in water, with a number of others. I concluded to take quarters on a table where I took a wet but a good sleep Saturday we put up our tents and dug ditches around them so they are water proofe. Sunday today is comparatively quiet though I hear the Band play a part of the time as the guards have to be changed. I have not been to preaching to day but they say that next Sunday there will be preaching on the ground. We have plenty to eat here and can trade Pork and Beef for all the nicnacks we want. We draw as rations Pork Beef Rice Potatoes Bread sugar Coffee tea molasses vinegar Soap & candles Salt Pepper &c not all at once but all we need as evry other day for a change we have a good mess the Best one in the crowd to my notion. [illegible] myself and 3 other Carpenters one Telegraph operator 3 Mt. Vernon students Fred Wilkes¹⁰ one stone mason besides two other common laborers, mess together We are all well suited and all good cooks Tell Peter¹¹ that Gorum [Josiah Gorhem] the wagon maker at Clinton is in our mess. There is now a full Regiment of Cavalry here a great many of them want horses sadles and equipments besides us, they get them as soon as can be, but no telling when Isaac's Company with some others look well when mounted, as they have theyr saddles.

That money you sent me I thought I would not nead it so I sent it back with John, I also sent you some apples and peaches half what John brought home, I sent them because I new they would come good and becaus I could. I would have sent something more but I did not know that we would have to go to Burlington so soon.

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³ John Schuyler was the oldest son of Peter and Lorrette Schuyler and therefore was William's nephew although he was about the same age. He later enlisted and died in camp.

⁴ Lyons is a town of about 6000 population, two and one-half miles directly north of Clinton, Iowa. Here Company B of the First Iowa Cavalry was organized about May 1, 1861, under the leadership of Judge William E. Leffingwell of Lyons, its first captain. Samuel S. Burdett of DeWitt, 1st lieutenant, was later promoted to captain. —Lothrop's A History of the First Regiment Iowa Cavalry Veteran Volunteers (Lyons, Ia., Beers and Eaton, 1890), p. 20.

⁵ Camp McClellan, at Davenport, served as a concentration point for the additional companies permitted by an Act of Congress of July 29, 1861. This act increased the number of companies constituting a cavalry regiment from ten to twelve. This permitted the addition to the First Cavalry of Company L, mustered into the service on September 23rd; and Company M, which went into quarters at Camp McClellan on September 2nd and was sworn into service on September 12th.

⁶ Henry W. Lee, of Davenport, was bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Iowa from 1854 until his death in 1874. He was instrumental in the founding at Davenport of Griswold College and the building of Trinity Cathedral. He also carried to a successful conclusion a money-raising campaign which made possible the purchase of 6000 acres of land by the Iowa diocese.— Downer's History of Davenport and Scott County (Chicago, S. J. Clark, 1910), Vol. I, p. 590.

⁷ The Burtis Opera House, 413 Perry St., Davenport, Iowa.

⁸ Captain (Judge) William E. Leffingwell organized Company B, First Iowa Cavalry, under the name of the "Hawkeye Rangers". This was the first full company of equipped cavalry in the State. It numbered 98 officers and men, according to the Lyons City Advocate of July 27, 1861. It is significant that Capt. Leffingwell raised this company and procured its equipment without aid either from the State or Federal government. At different times before and after the war Leffingwell was a Presidential Elector, Judge of the Eastern Iowa District Court, and President of the Iowa State Senate. He was an able lawyer, and was distinguished for his scholarly attainments.

⁹ Isaac Gulick of Company B, a cousin. He re-enlisted in 1864 and survived the war. He afterwards moved with his parents to State Center, Marshall County, Iowa, and according to latest reports, he is still living there.

¹⁰ Fred Wilkes (Frederick R. Wilkes) also of Company M was William Gulick's most intimate friend and "buddy" until the death of the latter in September, 1863. He had come to Clinton County from Indiana before the war, and joined Company M with the original enlistment in September, 1861. He re-enlisted in 1864 and served out the war.

¹¹ Peter Schuyler, a brother-in-law to Gulick, had married Lorrette, William's oldest sister.

SOURCE: Benjamin F. Shambaugh, The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, vol. 28 (1930), pp. 201-4

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Benjamin F. Pearson, January 2, 1863

Night verry high wind with incessant heavy rain, our canvas tents shelter us well from the storm but the storm of wind gave us some uneasiness, we feared our stakes might draw & our tents capsize About 2 Oc a Rebble boat Bracele came up with a flag of truce & anchored opposite town to exchange the crew of our boat Blue Wing which they captured a fiew days since. Mr. Oldfield who knows the Capt of the Blue Wing told me that he David Hugle was at heart a traitor & he believed that the taking of his boat with government stores was as Hugle wished it to be, & Oldfield shook hands & talked with Harry Nolen of Cincinatti who was one that came on shore to see about an exchange & his wife is in Cincinatti sewing to Support herself & family & the citty helps to keep her. At 4 Oc we ware on dress perade

SOURCE: Edgar R. Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2, October 1925, p. 102

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Benjamin F. Pearson, January 3, 1863

Rain. Continued untill past midnight. We drilled in manuel of arms from 11 Oc to 12 Ос

SOURCE: Edgar R. Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2, October 1925, p. 102

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Benjamin F. Pearson, Sunday, January 4, 1863

Clear & Pleasant with frogs jumping about the ponds. This place, Hellena is almost impassible for persons on foot, this day at 10 Oc I started alone & took a ramble up to Col Busseys¹ head quarters found Horis Cutler on his Staff he is an old acquaintance in Keosauqua, I then rambled out back of the town over the poor broken points that skirt the place, was in & viewed the fortifications they seem well arranged to defend the place against any attack by the enemy. at a frame building on one of the points I heard a black man preach text if the earthly house of this tabernacle &c. at 1 Oc same place I heard another black man preach text John 1st ch & 1st v. 2½ Oc our Chaplain preached out in the midst of our camp text 36 Psalm 11th & 12th v. evening I wrote some to my daughter. 4 Oc we ware on Dress perade

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¹ Cyrus Bussey, a merchant of Bloomfield; state senator, 1860; colonel Third Iowa Cavalry, 1861; brigadier-general, 1864-65.

SOURCE: Edgar R. Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2, October 1925, pp. 102-3

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Benjamin F. Pearson, January 7, 1863

Morning clear & cold with heavy frost & ice on the little ponds thick as heavy window glass Capt drilled the Co & I attended to getting things for our mess the 1st Mo Battery 6 guns came down on the Black Hawk & are camped here. afternoon the 28th Wisconsin Inft came down on ——— & the company grounds being all taken up they passed down

SOURCE: Edgar R. Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2, October 1925, p. 103

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Benjamin F. Pearson, January 13, 1863

Rained moderately untill 12 Oc night, when it commenced to pour it down in torrants & continued incessantly all the night long At 9½ Oc morning I was required to report with 10 men & a Corporal at head quarters for Picket duty & at the hour we started out I stationed my pickets & placed my videtts I then took a little exploring ramble beyont to see if I could make any discovery but discovered no enemy & returned by the way of my post on Sunday night & found my watch kee that I then had lost the last time I was on picket At 10 Ос night Lieut Stanton & one of his men of the 3rd Iowa Cavelry came to apprize me that there was a squad of rebble cavelry had aproched his videtts but their horses had neighed & the rebbles put back my man & I was in anxious expectation from that till day but they came not at 3 Oc afternoon I was at the burrying of Thos W Coddington private from near Hillsborough Iowa Chaplain Ingalls informed me that he died verry happy

SOURCE: Edgar R. Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2, October 1925, p. 104

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Benjamin F. Pearson, January 14, 1863

At 11 Oc forenoon we ware relieved from our post & started in rejoicing in hopes of getting to the fire & dry ourselves for we had no shelter from the pelting rain of the past night & this day, & we know how to simpathize with the poor fellows that have to stand the ballance of the day & night At about 3 Oc this morning one of the videtts of the 3rd Iowa Cavelry fired 3 shots at something he supposed to be an enemy but done no execution & he posibly might have been mistaken the night was verry dark but from the time of the firing we ware in expectation all the time untill day light, & even then many expected there would be a dash upon us by Cavelry, we ware the advance pickets through the night & after daylight the pickets of the 3rd Iowa Cavelry again posted themselves beyond us

SOURCE: Edgar R. Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2, October 1925, pp. 104-5

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Benjamin F. Pearson, January 15, 1863

At midnight last night it commenced to sleet & continued for about 12 hours then commenced snowing in earnest & continued to snow hard untill near the middle of the afternoon it abated with snow from 6 to 8 inches deep & the ground in a perfect slush of mud & watter under the snow, & it continued snowing moderately the ballance of the afternoon & night untill now 8½ Oc & yet snowing with a fair prospect of continuing through the night I am suffering with a severe pane in the small of my back but not to prevent me from duty

SOURCE: Edgar R. Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2, October 1925, p. 105

Diary of Corporal John Worrell Northrop, Tuesday, August 9, 1864

Terrible rain; it swelled the stream to a river. The stockade fell in several places. On the east side through the swamp about eight rods fell. One place on the west a sentry box fell carrying the sentry in it. Soon as it occurred the sentinels fired and two cannon shots over the camp succeeded, to warn us to be quiet or shot would be rained on us. Meantime we were amused to see the Rebls get out of their quarters and double quick to the weak points. The camp was in a hurrah to see the Rebs getting drenched as well as ourselves. Some prisoners plunged into the flood to bring out floating timber or pieces of boards that came down as if they were a God-send, for we would not be allowed to pick them up if we were outside. At these places the Rebels stood in line of battle for more than an hour and when the rain ceased, they had only time to temporarily repair the damage before night; so fires were built and a strong guard kept out all night.

SOURCE: John Worrell Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, p. 103

Diary of Corporal John Worrell Northrop, Wednesday, August 10, 1864

Soldiers and negroes are rebuilding the fallen wall. Prisoners stand at a distance often shouting: "That is good for you, Rebs"; "That's the way your Confederacy will fall; Grant and Sherman are making bigger holes than these." "Ho, Reb, what are you doing with dat nigger dar; 'pears to us you're reduced to the level of the nigger." "It's hard enough to starve on cob-meal and be hunted by dogs, but when you come to build bull-pens for us with niggers, working by your sides, you are hyenas, you are black abolitionists, you are barbarians." Plenty of other taunts are indulged till men get sick of it.

Two new walls are being built outside of the main one. The most hopeful believers in immediate exchange, are puzzled as to what it means. Tunnelling cannot be successfully done more than sixty or eighty feet horizontally, the air becoming insufferable. The vacuity is necessarily small, just admitting a man as he draws himself along. It cannot be larger for fear of exposure, besides the dirt is dug with hands, sticks, etc., and passed to the opening to be carried to the swamp, or whereever it can be concealed. It cannot be ventilated for that might be a key to discovery. Likely these new walls are to obstruct the digging of tunnels.

For several days barracks have been in course of erection in the north part, the work being done by our men on parole who bring the lumber in on their shoulders. They are allowed an extra ration and occasionally opportunities to trade for their benefit. What do these barracks mean? Are we to stay here all winter? men asked. At the rate they go up, I think we will, if we wait for them. Some say they are for hospitals.

Steward Brown, who is an Englishman and not a soldier, on parole, expresses the belief that it was fortunate for prisoners that Stoneman's expedition failed, for it was the intention of Gen. Winder to use the Florida battery on the prison had any considerable Union force approached Andersonville within seven miles, and had so ordered in the regular way in writing, on July 27th.

[Note-Here is the order. It was found on file among the records at the Confederate War Department at Richmond, and is with other records in possession of the government, so it is plain Steward Brown knew his statement was true. This is the diabolical order:

 

Order No 13.

 

Headquarters Military Prison, Andersonville, Ga., July 27, 1864.

 

The officers on duty and in charge of the Battery of Florida Artillery at the time will, upon receiving notice that the enemy has approached within seven miles of this post, open upon the stockade with grapeshot, without reference to the situation beyond these lines of defense.

 

JOHN H. WINDER, 

Brigadier  General Commanding.]

Five men sunstruck and reported dead; most of us are stupefied by heat. For more than a month it has been almost unbearable. The dazzling rays reflected by sand flash through us like flames of fire. The stench of the filthy earth rises hot and vapory to our nostrils. Oh, that I might feel the shade of the beautiful forest yonder, whose green trees look pityingly over upon us! How relieved we would be by an hour of repose on the fresh earth beneath them!

Go to the gate to help William Kline. A number of the sick are carried through the gate and laid in the yard by the stockade. A Rebel sergeant soon ordered us back, no doctors appearing. The sick had been notified at roll call to go for treatment, and their feeble spirits were animated with hope. Some wept bitterly and sank into despair at the disappointment. The Confederate sergeant, in answer to questions, remarked, "They might as well go to hell as to the hospital. It is a right hard place; the doctors can do nothing."

Naturally we believe the word hospital means something. In this horrid distress men long for its benign influence; many are consoled with the thought of being admitted, even when we know it is a cruel, wicked mockery.

Near the sinks a sentry fired tonight, the ball grazing a man's thigh, near where I walked, and whizzed by into the swamp. No rations today; nothing to eat. Men have loitered near the gate since noon hoping for something but in vain. We lay down to-night hungry, sick and sad. Not a crumb of anything all night, all day and all night again, with no certainty of anything to-morrow.

ODE TO WIRZ.

 

Cheating them who truly trust

Is a coward's villainy;

But when we yield to whom we must,

We suffer viler tyranny:

If venom doth full license wield

To feed the vengeance and the hates

No virtue has for years concealed,

And which a misled South elates.

A brutal knave were he who slay

A child that slumbered on his knee;

But we are thrown within his sway

Who lacks sense and magnanimity,

And glories in a brutal way

Toward men who fight 'gainst slavery.

Looking at the swamp with its deposit of ordure, intensely alive with billions of flies and maggots, today, it came to me that not only the early but the late bird can catch worms and catch them continually, if fool enough to visit the place. But no bird have I yet seen in this foul realm. Mingled with a sense of disgust, I am prone to wonder. Out of this mass I see a new creation, an emerging of animate life of low order. The flies that feed on the excreta, deposit germs from which, in connection with the deposit, when operated on by solar energy, the sun being the battery, these lives germinate in form of maggots totally unlike the fly, unlike any worm I ever noticed. These millions of loathsome things, squirming in roasting sun, in a few days develop into winged insects larger and darker than maggots, an inch long. From among a cloud of flies and acres of worms I see them rise and fly from the filthy bed of their inception, seemingly seeking existence elsewhere. Interest was first incited in these low fledglings, when they appeared on ground bordering the swamp, where they fell in the mush when men were at repast. Indeed there is life, or principles of life in matter dead. Here is a low order of exhibition of Nature's power to evolve and produce phases of animation degrees above their physical source.

SOURCE: John Worrell Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, pp. 103-5

Diary of Private Lewis C. Paxson, Sunday, February 1, 1863

One of the most famous snow storms of this country. Norton and I spent the evening together. Washing, 20.

SOURCE: Lewis C. Paxson, Diary of Lewis C. Paxson: Stockton, N.J., 1862-1865, p. 11

Diary of Private Lewis C. Paxson, Monday, February 2, 1863

Thirty-two below zero. I mended my moccasins, Battalion drill.

SOURCE: Lewis C. Paxson, Diary of Lewis C. Paxson: Stockton, N.J., 1862-1865, p. 12

Diary of Private Lewis C. Paxson, Tuesday, February 3, 1863

Twenty-one below zero.

SOURCE: Lewis C. Paxson, Diary of Lewis C. Paxson: Stockton, N.J., 1862-1865, p. 12

Diary of Private Lewis C. Paxson, Wednesday, February 4, 1863

I finished my letter to W. J. Hawn. The saw mill once more under way, and broke down. A threshing wind. Military school.

SOURCE: Lewis C. Paxson, Diary of Lewis C. Paxson: Stockton, N.J., 1862-1865, p. 12

Diary of Private Lewis C. Paxson, Friday, February 6, 1863

Cloudy. Commenced getting out timber for pallisades. William Beatty died.

SOURCE: Lewis C. Paxson, Diary of Lewis C. Paxson: Stockton, N.J., 1862-1865, p. 12