#93 Part 2: Civil War Soldier's Diary: Off to the War, a year in the ranks by Pvt Edgar Walters

[Music] a proclamation had been issued calling for one year's volunteers and the question of reenlistment soon began to be agitated in the regiment we were informed that after 40 days of our term had passed we could reenlist and count from that date large bounties were offered and our officers used every exertion to preserve the organization of the regiment the novelty of soldiering however was rapidly wearing off with many of the men and it was evident that many of them could not be induced to enlist for a longer term quite a number of accidents happened to members of our regiment and to others while encamped there from the careless handling of shells and firearms which were scattered over the battlefield a young man of the artillery had his arm blown off by a shell while members of others were standing around and remained unhurt an accident which resulted fatally took place near the station one night as a train of soldiers was passing one of them was sleeping on the bumper of a car and by some means rolled off and was instantly killed by the concussion he was buried the next day by a detachment of our regiment near our camp being the first military funeral I had ever witnessed solemn indeed thrice solemn as the low muffled roll of the drum as it sounds the Requiem over the grave of a departed hero about the beginning of September a number of agents from different counties and corporations in Pennsylvania arrived offering bounties from recruits for one year's service different sums ranging from 400 to 500 dollars were offered Colonel Fisher tried very hard to have the regiment remain in a body but was very unsuccessful I Rhian listed on the 7th of September into a company which captains sprecher of Company G was forming receiving a local bounty of five hundred and ten dollars and a promise of one government bounty about 325 men were recruited into the regiment 20 or 25 of whom preferred cavalry service the remained the remainder were to continue in the infantry myself included although the sequel proved it would have been to my advantage to have joined the cavalry during our sojourn on the Monocacy the decisive battles which resulted in the overthrow of the rebels in the Shenandoah Valley by the nobles Sheridan were fought and the dull booming of the cannon and the sharp rattle of musketry were plainly heard in our camp our clothing had become at this time to be in a very dilapidated state which was probably the main cause of our being left in the rear of the army this was the only cause which we have for gratitude to the shoddy villains who furnished our garments for this time they had become so miserable that many of the boys were almost reduced to the primitive fig leaf of our ancient sires in the Garden of Eden although a battle is not by any means a comfortable manner of employing the time it was still a matter of regret to me afterwards as I wondered over the devastated fields that I had not been a participant in them and particular partook of the glory of Phil Sheridan and his command when they carried the stars of freedom into the Citadel of treason I visited Frederic City five miles from camp on several occasions and was much pleased with the appearance of the place and the citizens in general most of those who were really rebels had joined the southern army so that the residents were principally unionists and clever hospitable people the city lies in the heart of a fertile and beautiful country and before the war was in quite a pot prosperous condition it was tolerably well built and contains a number of fine churches and public buildings the first general call of the regiment to Arms was to arrest a train of Union soldiers who were passing they were a sort of him hydrogenous mixture of different regiments in the valley going to their different commands and in passing our camp at general Tyler's headquarters kept up a constant aimless fire very dangerous to everybody near the road general Tyler ordered the same stopped and we were doubled quick to the road and formed around the Train he then inspected all their firearms and when he found one freshly discharged put its owner under guard afterwards he compelled them as punishment to march to Harpers Ferry under cavalry guard verifying to their case the old adage what a man does not have in his head he must have in his heel a few nights afterward about midnight a number of shots were heard in quick succession on the picket lines the long roll was beat the regiment formed and a detachment was sent out to the line it turned out that one of the posts had been fired upon by some unknown invisible persons and returned the fire but nobody was hurt and stillness reigned for the remainder of the night during the latter part of September we threw up a series of earthworks calculated from the protection of the junction and bridge in the event of an attack from the rebels in any future time our regiment dug the rifle pits extending to the form of a slight Crescent with the curve of the river flanked on the left by a couple of readouts for field pieces which were built by the artillerists stationed there and on the break by a large block house in course of erection when we left the place by a company of the first Maryland veteran volunteers on the night of the 29th of September marching orders were issued we packed our maps X but were compelled to wait all night and the next day before troops arrived to relieve us they came at length though in the evening of the 30th but it did not under Nasser tain the name of the regiment the little party from the regiment who had rien listed it to the cavalry were here detached from us and sent back to Baltimore much to their own regret and that of their comrades such as the lot of the soldier forming attachments only to break them finding friends only to lose them on the night of the 30th we took to the cars have moved off toward Harpers Ferry passing point of rocks whose grim heights talent above us like phantoms in the darkness after midnight we stopped and slept on the cars until daylight when we found ourselves at Sandy Hook with the blue waters of the Potomac beside us and the giant guardians of Harpers Ferry directly in front of us we were all impatient now for our train to move onward and have a nearer view of the town hist the town historic in our country's annals we cooked our breakfast here and on account of the breaking down of a coal train somewhere on the Virginia side were compelled to remain until noon finally however we moved off a miles run brought us to the iron bridge across the river and now from this point I consider the view one of the grandest in the country certainly by far the grandest I had ever seen or have since beside us and directly overhead the lofty and on this side almost vertical cliffs of Maryland Heights loomed up hundreds of feet opposite the village of Harpers Ferry in fronts to Bolivar Heights its huge bulk standing like a barrier between us and the South farther down the turbid waters of the Shenandoah the wild poetic Shenandoah the delight of the romanticist and the novelist causes foaming up from the sunnier lands of the South only to be borne backward in the bosom of its mightier brother to the broad Atlantic their common origin London Heights adds its rugged charms to the landscape and the blue Potomac studded with green rocks as the outlet to these great mountains finishes the picture but even this does not finish the interest of the scene for the vandal hand of man has carved with the sword new memories on these mighty monument monuments of nature there is the historic engine house where the brave and Seles but misguided John Brown and his companions attempted prematurely to light the fires of emancipation with their bayonets but did it more surely with their blood there are the long piles and ruins of government buildings along the first offerings of the Moloch of rebellion and a hundred other memories clustered around this mounted locked town such was the gateway through which we entered our old dominion the [ __ ] degenerate home of Washington and Jefferson shades of freedom's dead the cluster on these mighty bulwarks sentinels in the vanguard of the mighty hosts of universal Liberty shortly after leaving Harpers Ferry it commenced to rain and continued all afternoon and as most of us were on the car roofs we became thoroughly soaked the country looked dreary and wretched and altogether the ride to Martinsburg was a most miserable one occupying as it did nearly the whole afternoon although the distance is but about 25 miles we arrived there towards evening and kept close by the town the streets were very muddy the evening was dreary and drizzly and our clothing was completely soaked but we soon pitched our tents and built huge fires drying up not only our wet clothes but our dampened spirits Martinsburg was at that time filled to overflowing with wounded soldiers for the army of the Shenandoah all public buildings were filled with them men wounded in every conceivable manner some of them presenting ghastly and shocking appearances the town was patrolled guarded and barricaded and I think a resistance in it then would have been at the best a miserable existence we drew rations next morning of crackers and pork and with our damp heavy burdens started out on the railroad West marching to North Mountain a station seven miles from Martinsburg detaching company be at a place two miles east one mile south of the station was the town of hedgesville where the headquarters of the regiment were to be stationed companies C D G H and I were left there but on the next morning the remainder of us marched on as far as back Creek four miles farther where our company and Company F were ordered to remain companies NK went on still farther the former to cherry run four miles beyond us the latter two sleepy Creek five miles further our camp at this place was situated in the midst of a rugged and buried region uncultivated for miles around and covered with a short stunted growth of ground oaks and similar useless productions of nature the location however was about as good and probably better in many respects and is usually the lot of soldiers to enjoy we recorded in log cabins which had been used by soldiers before us in which we reconstructed after our own ideas bat creek is a small affluent of the potomac and our camp was crossed by the railroad on a bridge of trestle work in the neighborhood of 100 feet high it had formerly been composed of iron but was broken down by the rebels and fragments were lying in the stream and almost inaccessible precipice sloped up from the west side of the stream to the height of probably a hundred and fifty feet and on top and near the verge of this we were encamped about a half mile distance the stream joined the Potomac and from the high banks the latter a magnificent view into Maryland and even beyond to the Blue Mountains of Pennsylvania could be obtained the water abounded with fish the rugged country with game and the banks of the streams were frequented by immense flocks of wild ducks geese and etc so that as far as our food was concerned we had no reason to complain but here the attractive features of the place ended for our quarters were filled with vermin of every description including the pestilent dragged back our clothing was light and ragged and as the nights were quite chill the ground frequently hard frozen it was poorly adapt to the season and last and worst the country was filled with gorillas jayhawkers and Marauders of every description who harassed us incensed Lee firing upon and annoying our pickets nearly every night and as a consequence often keeping us under arms and scouting around nearly all night heavy duty and loss of sleep caused considerable sickness among the men a corporal and squad of men were sent out one evening toward the middle of October in advance of the posts a short distance for an ambush too many prowlers who might approach the line they had scarcely got beyond the Sentinels when they met about an equal number of armed citizens and a sharp skirmish instantly took place both parties tree after the Indian manner but our boys soon gained advantage and forced them back toward the river 40 men were double-quick from camp as soon as the firing was heard but it soon became so dark that they make their escape the next morning a party of us followed in the direction that they had taken and found where they had constructed a raft across the river with patches of blood in the sand and on the bushes a funeral took place nearly opposite in Maryland that day doubtless the chivalrous Vindicator of southern rights whom the boys had given a free ticket to the unknown born on the priests preceding night our sutler stores we obtained a cherry run four miles west where a jolly old citizen and his handsome daughter kept quite an assortment of army necessaries company a a was stationed there on the summit of a high steep hill commanding quite a fine prospect and the country round did not appear quite so barbarous as at our camp a considerable portion of it being farmed the cornfields orchards and etc giving it a more natural appearance to us at least on the 24th of October a party of 30 of us under lieutenant Thomas left camp for an all-day Scout we marched a cherry run crossed into Maryland in a crazy little scowl which carried seven or eight at a time and then parami lated hither and thither over the country frightening the women and making seizures of piles of army clothing the arms but in our whole travel did not see a single man they probably concealed themselves at our approach and left the women to do the talking and jangling a task for which females are generally eminently fitted we passed through a couple of little towns on our route and ironworks and in the evening we crossed the river at McFly's ferry about four miles below camp and returned to camp about nightfall thoroughly tired out having for our day's work about a dozen rusty old fire locks and various patterns and several military overcoats and other garments armed foes we have not encountered and we were rather bored on the subject of our volunteer Scout shortly before leaving I strolled out one day with a couple companions for a half day's hunt along the river game was not plenty and we winded our way into a high rocky Bluff along the river known there as Point Lookout or Lookout Mountain from the summit of this we had a splendid view and we spent several hours in enjoying it directly opposite stands the grim deserved walls of old fort cumberland an ancient relic I suppose of the revolution its enclosure is now put to the very unwarlike use of a potato patch and heaven knows it would be good thing reclining here on this lofty perch with the rippling waters of the blue Potomac beneath my feet with the dim mountains of my native state faintly shadowed in the distance I would indeed have had little but sentiment if my thoughts have not reverted to other and loftier themes I thought in the immortal Lay's of Byron in his Isles of Greece suited alike to all the claims and ages the mountains look long marathon and marathon looks on the sea and musing there an hour alone I dreamed that Greece might still be free for standing on the Persians grave I could not deem myself a slave no understanding by the banks of one of our grandest rivers and in the sight of the ramparts erected by our forefathers I could not deem myself a slave to the tyrannies the usurpations and the treason of the slave drivers of the south sooner let the dome of our capital be rent to Adams the archives of our nation destroyed our Constitution given to the flames and the very name of our country be wiped from existence but it will not be so the right shall conquer and the oppressed go free already the day Star of Hope tinges the horizon and the end is at hand about the last of October received an order detaching and consolidating the one year's men in order to remainder the regiment to be relieved and start home on the night of October 31st we packed up in bade goodbye to the remainder the boys and sad we all were depart from each others we marched to the camp at hedgesville remained there all night and in the morning little fragments of relisted men from each company marched out and wheeled into line for the first time under our new organization we formed three full companies commanded by the senior captain Captain Mark Lee our company offers as were captain Phillip L Sprecher First Lieutenant William D Stouffer and are orderly sergeant George Engle was expecting his commission as second lieutenant we started early and marked out on the road to Martinsburg the Train with our old comrades passing us by the way about noon we reached Martinsburg and marched on through and camping on the opposite side a farmer was unfortunate enough to remain in the middle of the street with a load of apples as we passed no quarter was shown and the poor farmer was speedily relieved of his fruit and left to grieve over the mutability of human affairs guards were detached in the evening and sent into the town to do Provost duty for the time and the place at that time was strongly barricaded and controlled and quite a number of soldiers encamped in the streets and close to around the town on the morning of November 3rd I was detailed for special duty in a squad of 21 men one lieutenant one sergeant three corporals and the remainder privates we were detached as a cattle guard to drive about 600 cattle in Harrisburg Pennsylvania we carried no baggage except the woolen and a rubber blanket together of course with arms accoutrements and haversacks we left Martinsburg that morning after a toilsome [ __ ] over a very bad road and in constant anticipation of attack from guerrillas reached the Potomac at Williamsport shortly before dark we had much difficulty in getting the cattle cross but at length succeeded crossing ourselves on the ferryboat we pass through the town after dark and turned our drove into a field in the Hagerstown Turnpike a half mile or so from the outskirts relay that night in the open field without even a tent over us and nature that very fickle Dame as if seized with a sudden fit of generosity partially compensated us for a lack of covering by giving us one of the most bountiful coverings of mud and water before morning that I ever enjoyed it rained as the old woman would say by buckets full all night and a miserable looking party we were in day broke besides the good people of way in the sport and their disinterested kindness had relieved us of about 25 of a cattle during the night in our raft we failed to appreciate their kindness and marched into the talent seizing and driving off all the horn animals we could find but with all were - a number of cattle when we left that day we made but two miles stopping in a field about midway between Williamsport and Hagerstown the next morning we set out early passing the Magnificent spring of water the name which I do not know but certainly the finest I ever saw on directly through town which by the way I thought a quite a fine-looking place and camped for the night about a mile directly upon the state line which rejoices in the classic title of mutton town whose inhabitants are I presume the wisest of people probably the very tutors of wisdom herself and their own eyes were in a high state of excitement at her approach they unanimously opposed the war the draft the taxes and everything but the rebels in short they belong to that class whom the vile minions of Phil Sheridan denominated comprehends consequently they considered that our passage through their streets was an invasion of their sacred rights we approach their City on Sunday morning the 6th of November before us a short distance stood a lofty Hickory Pole on which flaunted a flag with the words McClellan and Pendleton peace and union [Music] the toughness of the Hickory perhaps emblematic of the toughness of their skulls this cruel joke was perpetrated by one of our jolly Jokers after a view of the situation the whole population male and female were gathered close by we supposed to give us battle but oh no battles did not agree with them they were there to protect the pole they said we marched up formed under the sacred pole when corporal Thomas stepped out and said boys I propose three cheers for the American flag they were given hearty three more for the Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson our would-be corporal could not see into PP curity or the name of Johnson would probably have been admitted three grounds for the Chicago platform and its nominees if looks could do any hurt we would have been exterminated then and there for fearful or thus cowls on the faces of the mutton counters but they left us alone in our glory and we soon bid them an affectionate farewell turning our faces north and in a few minutes more with a thrill of delight left over the imaginary line into old Pennsylvania we made our longest [ __ ] that day passing through green castle and on until within a few miles of Chambersburg a distance during the day of about 14 miles driving cattle we found to be more tiresome employment than marching with and knapsack and we were all thoroughly wearied out when we stopped we were now fairly EdgeRank the Great Cumberland Valley and the country improved in appearance with each step northward at least at our eyes in spite of our tired limbs we were a merry party at the prospect of soon again seeing our native places and greeting our friends we cooked an elegant supper from a half dozen of unlucky chickens which were unfortunate enough to get within our grasp during the day all of us being in favor of confiscation at least of all the eatables that came into our reach and enjoyed a sweet sleep that night while the rain pattern on top of our rubber blankets soon after starting the next morning we entered the town of Chambersburg or rather its ruins for at that time new building had not been erected excepting some temporary shanties and a deplorable sight indeed were the lines of ruins bare walls open cellars and ruthless houses that stared us at us on all sides a fitting monument to the vandals who perpetrated the outrage as it was also a certain type of the ruins of their own miserable Confederacy about noon we stopped near Green Village and taking time by the forelock I left the squad and kept on my way intending to reach home that day and rejoined it in a couple of days for their tent further down late in the afternoon I reached Shippensburg wagon tired and dirty a very great contrast to the enthusiastic individual I had been leaving there a few months before not that the army spirit had died out of me the momentary enthusiasm it is true was gone but in instead burned a firm and a durable determination which I knew would last until the end I spent the next day jointly at home and in town and met a great many own soldiers who had gone out of the first call of war and were then home on furlough for this was the 8th of November and the great civil struggle for the president was just taking place there was much excitement either party the supporters and the opponents of the government equally confident of success on the morning of the night I left home with a better and cleaner suit of clothing that I had had for a long time and feeling decidedly better in consequence although a little depressed at the idea of leaving friends and home so soon I soon rejoined the boys and we continued on our way down the valley our journey was a pleasant one though unmarked by much incident and after several days more we reached the oysters point on the 14th a short distance from the Susquehanna River on the way the joyful news of Lincoln's reelection reached us joyful to us because it proved to us that the people of the North approved the cause for which we were battling and would sustain us in it our cattle were disposed of in Harrisburg at public auction and all of the speculators in the country were gathered to buy themselves rich but whether they were successful or not I am unable to say one thing is certain the cattle were sold and sold at very fair prices the unwilling contribution of the farmers of luden Valley to the government the principal part of our squad embraced this opportunity as being probably the best they would have of seeing their friends and for wonderful anything else they took what soldiers turn a French furlough as I did not wish to return home again I took up my abode at the soldiers rest with a few others in the same situation we remained there until the 20th when lieutenant McFerrin concluded that we had better start back to the regiment although but five of us were there so about two o'clock in the morning we embarked on the express train which was crammed considerably considerably over its capacity and run to Baltimore but with one stoppage at year arriving there shortly after daylight we remained up the rest in Baltimore until the 22nd and I spent the time and strolling through the city admiring its fine streets and buildings its monuments and markets wharves and shipping and other things attractive to the eye of a stranger and although there is much to admire there is also much that is to say the least detestable among which I might mention the zigzag turns of its streets which seemed to have been laid out before the principles of geometry were discovered on the 22nd we took the cars at Baltimore in the morning passing for the second time greatest progress theory by our old Monocacy camps and arrived at Duffield station between Harpers Ferry and Martinsburg in the afternoon this we were told was the nearest station to our camp and leaving the train we walked about a mile west where our company was encamped by itself the remainder of the battalion being at kearneysville two miles distance my comrades have been stationed in a permanent guard or picket post and I succeeded in exchanging places with one of the men and took up my quarters with them five of us had held the post each standing about two and a half hours in the day and the same length of time in the night we drew good ratios build ourselves a good cabin and shortly after my arrival got a good supply of clothing so that we were seen pretty comfortably fixed the winter scenes set in with good earnest the fields were white the trees bare and everything wore a gloomy and somber aspect all the devices that Yankee ingenuity could invent were resorted to to wile away the time and with all that it hung heavily on our hands within our cabins the fire was bright and warm without the rough chill winds moaned tremulously through the dead branches bearing on their icy wings and cold breath of angry winter and I thought often is this the mission of man that he should expose himself to the cold gales of winter to the burning Suns of summer to all the in clemencies of all the seasons for what that he may carry ravage and ruin to the homes of his fellow man that he may desolate the industry of Ages plot the ground with human gore and bathe his shining bayonet and the blood of his brother there's a radical wrong at the root of all this we claim to be the most civilized nation on earth and to illustrate the fact we are butchering each other by hundreds of thousands threescore and ten are the years allotted to man but thousands of young men and the first dawn of a bright manhood are burned down bleeding to their mother earth era they have passed the first third of it away false phantom of the civilization away bloody conflict delusive honor the whose names these barbarities are committed the blood of the slain cries for retribution and the authors of this infamous war and retribution Shore speedy awful will follow [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Homestead Pilgrim

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Keywords: Civil War, Civil War Diary, Civil War Soldiers Diary, Soldiers diary

Id: Zvx5t1WqQvg

Length: 33min 47sec (2027 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 03 2020