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Archives: Letter to Chloe Unity Blair by James Booker - 3

Sunday morning August
the .3. 1862
Dear Cousin
after long neglect I in deavor to answer your kind letter which came to hand in due time I hope you will excuse me for not writing sooner, as I was verry unwell for several days after I got your letter,

Note: Company D of the 38th Virginia Infantry in Whitmell. 3765 Reads

Recollections Of A Soldier In The Civil War

Fitchburg, Sept. 17, 1919. The first experience of a soldier is camp life. O! the sweet memories of departed days, how they rise up before us; the ups and downs, the drills, the dress parades, skirmish, rally by fours, guard against infantry, guard against cavalry, the barracks, the bunks, the rations-how they stare us in the face as we look back to the first few days we were in camp in the town of Groton, near the Peterboro and Shirley Railroad, at a place called Camp Stevens.

Note: by Joel A. Stratton, Captain of Company C, Fifty-third Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, 1862-1863. 12562 Reads

28th Maine Infantry at Donaldsonville, La.

On the 18th of Jan. 1863, we found ourselves encamped upon the old battle ground below New Orleans, where Jackson informed John Bull that his visit was neither welcome nor for the good for the people who had left home to avoid him and his mode of government.

Note: by Captain Augustine Thompson, Company G, 28th Maine 10581 Reads

A Tar Heel Confederate Soldier

This diary was commenced for the fun of writing down my experience as a soldier from the Old North State. I never thought for a moment that I would put it in print; but now that I am getting old and have read so many histories written by our officers, but have never seen in print a history written by a private. I know that my diary is truly the life of the man behind the gun, therefore I make bold to publish it.

Note: by Louis Leon, Company C, First North Carolina Regiment 15578 Reads

6th New York Heavy Artillery in the Wilderness

Headquarters, 1st Brig., 3d Div. 6th Ar.
Near Gaines Mills
June 4, 1864
Dear Ha: I have just received a letter from you and as a mail will leave in an hour or two, I hasten to answer. We are behind entrenchments, holding a position which we have just taken from the enemy. Bullets, as I write, are flying in all directions, and wounded and dead men pass me continually.

Note: Letter from Chas. Leonard to his father in the trenches, Virginia countryside near Richmond, Va. 10254 Reads

From Manassas to Appomattox

I was stationed at Albuquerque, New Mexico, as paymaster in the United States army when the war-cloud appeared in the East. Officers of the Northern and Southern States were anxious to see the portending storm pass by or disperse, and on many occasions we, too, were assured, by those who claimed to look into the future, that the statesman would yet show himself equal to the occasion, and restore confidence among the people.

Note: by General James Longstreet 11901 Reads

Battle Report, Bull Run

Headquarters Department Northeastern Virginia, Arlington, VA, August 4, 1861. Colonel:
I have the honor to submit the following report of the battle of the 21st of July, near Manassas, Va. It has been delayed till this time from the inability of the subordinate commanders to get earlier a true account of the state of their commands.

Note: by Brigadier General Irvin McDowell 14919 Reads

Battle of Murfreesboro

General Bragg having evacuated Kentucky, the Federal troops under command of General Rosecrans had been concentrated about Nashville and Bragg's army around Murfreesboro. Only about 25 miles lay between the two armies. So about the last of December Rosecrans advanced on Murfreesboro sufficiently near to offer battle. So on the morning of 31st December we accepted the challenge and at them we went.

Note: by Captain W.P. Howell, 25th Alabama, Company I 11042 Reads

16th Tennessee Infantry

In 1861, when the war clouds obscured the sky I was a boy of 17, living in Tennessee. In common with all the boys of my age, whether living north or south I had the military spirit and at the first opportunity placed my name upon the rolls as a soldier, volunteering to fight for my native state. On the 21st day of May, 1861, I enlisted in company B, 16th Tennessee Infantry, under Col. Jno. H. Savage, and was sent to Estil Springs, on the N. C. & St. L. railroad, where we stayed a few days, and then went to Camp Trousdale, north of Nashville on the Louisville & Nashville railroad, near the Kentucky line.

Note: by Robert C. Carden, Company B, 16th Tennessee Infantry 19671 Reads

Prison Camp

About the 14th or 15th of August 1864 about 300 of us started on an expedition from Jacksonville, Florida to destroy a rebel commissary at Gainesville, Florida. We arrived there at daylight on the morning of the 16th of August 1864. Through spys the rebels heard that we were coming and 1500 of them had surrounded the city ready to fight us. They charged on us but we drove them back and held the city till three o'clock in the afternoon and looking for reinforcements every minute.

Note: by John Marshall Stewart 9029 Reads

Iron Brigade

May 3, 1864 Passed off quietly with nothing to disturb the monotony of camp life until after dark when we received orders to pack up and to be ready to march at a moment's notice. We had been expecting marching orders for the last two weeks so that we were not surprised to hear the orders to pack up sung out.

Note: by Clinton Hogue, Company G of the Iron Brigade's Indiana 19th Regiment 13682 Reads

War Journal: Captain Griffin Frost

AUGUST 1, 1861.—Believing the people of the South to be engaged in a just cause, defending the inalienable rights of American freemen, and that principle in the Declaration of Independence which asserts that "all governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed," and that the States are acting by the authority and in the strength of their reserved rights, I am with them.

10655 Reads

In the Monitor Turret

The keel of the most famous vessel of modern times was laid in the shipyard of Thomas F. Rowland, at Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in October, 1861, and on the 30th of January, 1862, the novel craft was launched. On the 25th of February she was commissioned and turned over to the Government, and nine days later left New York for Hampton Roads, where, on the 9th of March, occurred the memorable contest with the Virginia.

Note: by Commander S. D. Greene, U.S. Navy 11049 Reads

Prison Break

On the 8th of November, 1864, at 2 o'clock A.M., Captain Turner, of the Sixteenth Iowa, Captain Strang, of the Thirtieth Illinois, Lieutenant Laird, of the Sixteenth Iowa, and myself, made our escape through the guard lines at "Camp Surghum," near Columbia, South Carolina, with a view of making our way to the gunboats near the mouth of the Edisto river.

Note: by Captain W. W. McCarty. 9239 Reads

Civil War Diary, Jan. 24th-Nov.7th, 1863

Jan. 24th: I commenced keeping diary in Tom Sandle's book he being gone the Devil knows where. This morning inspection of arms weather cloudy and damp. No camp guards furnished by our Brigadier yesterday we were on pickett had the easiest duty our company ever done.

Note: by Melville Cox Follett 10533 Reads

War Stories: Civil War

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