Dead Horses and Soldiers’ Graves Were a Common Sight: A Wisconsin Soldier in the Shenandoah

While escorting a wagon train of supplies to General Phil Sheridan's army at Harrisonburg, Virginia in late September 1864, a Wisconsin soldier stumbled across one of the most controversial acts of Sheridan's Valley campaign: the burning.

    "When within eight miles of Harrisonburg, we met a force of cavalry gathering cattle, horses, sheep, and hogs into droves, and burning barns, hay, and grain stacks," he wrote. "As far as I could see in all directions the country was on fire. It is well settled and in times of peace must have been a wealthy country. It was a fearful sight. No one out of the army can conceive of the awful waste of property that a marching army makes." 

    The following soldier's letter first appeared on the front page of the October 20, 1864, edition of the Appleton Motor published in Appleton, Wisconsin. The correspondent, listed by the newspaper as simply "one of our neighbors now serving in the army," was never identified. 

 

Alfred Waud sketched this image of "the burning" on October 7, 1864, near Mount Jackson, Virginia. The action was a deliberate policy devised by Grant who ordered Sheridan to "do all the damage to railroads and crops you can. Carry off stock of all descriptions and Negroes so as to prevent further planting. If the war is to last another year, we want the Shenandoah Valley to remain a barren waste." The Union army, stung so many times by Confederate armies that traversed the Valley and invaded the North, was determined to put an end to raids and invasions like Early's. 

Martinsburg, Virginia

October 8, 1864

My dear father,

          It will be seven weeks next Monday since I left Appleton and I have not received a letter from anyone as yet, but I suppose there are a number in store for me at Washington that will be forwarded to the regiment as soon as we stop long enough in any place to warrant the officers sending for the mail.

          When at Harper’s Ferry, I wrote that we were under marching orders but did not know whither bound, but it now appears that we were ordered to guard supply trains to Sheridan’s army. His base of supplies was then at Harper’s Ferry. It is now at this place about ten miles nearer and I see by this morning’s paper that it will be at Strasburg in a few days.

          Our trains consisted of 500 wagons, each drawn by three spans of miles or horses, but principally by miles and driven in one line- an awkward way of driving in a Yankee’s estimation. These wagons are all covered with canvas and look like the prairie schooners we used to see. Between every 15 or 20 wagons were placed two or three companies of infantry besides a small force of cavalry which acted as scouts.

          We spent the Sabbath and Monday at the Ferry; on Tuesday morning, we had orders to shoulder our knapsacks, cartridge boxes, and gun, and to take our places in the ranks which was accomplished in ten minutes but it was 3 p.m. before we fairly started. We arrived at Harrisonburg, a distance of 108 miles, Saturday evening. I stood the march as well as any in the company though we were all footsore and weary.

          When within eight miles of Harrisonburg, we met a force of cavalry gathering cattle, horses, sheep, and hogs into droves, and burning barns, hay, and grain stacks. As far as I could see in all directions the country was on fire. It is well settled and in times of peace must have been a wealthy country. It was a fearful sight. No one out of the army can conceive of the awful waste of property that a marching army makes.


          We spent the Sabbath, or what answers for that day in the army, at Harrisonburg. On Monday, our wagons were loaded with refugees, sick, and wounded soldiers, and we started for this place in charge of 160 Rebel prisoners who had to hoof it with us. Some of them were barefooted but most of them were comfortably clad. They were marched in ranks of four with a file of our men on either side with fixed bayonets.

          That first night they had a hard time. It commenced raining about 4 in the afternoon and we marched until nearly 10 before we went into camp. We were all wet and the ground was wet; where the prisoners were placed was muddy and but few of them had blankets. We passed rails to them and they made fires and places a few at the side to lay on and bunked for the night. My mate and I were on guard till 12 o’clock and the most of the time it rained hard.

          Our blankets were wet and things looked gloomy and where we were to roost for the remainder of the night was getting to be a serious question. But fortunately, the wind changed and we went to a barn about a quarter of a mile distant and confiscated six bundles of unthreshed wheat and carried them back to lay on, which made us quite comfortable. The most of the time in this march I have laid on the ground with only a single piece of canvas under me and strange to say have not taken cold. The weather has been warm most of the time with no frost yet as of Sabbath morning October 8, 1864.

          It was rumored in camp yesterday that we are to start with another train tomorrow and this is the only chance I shall have to write until I return. There is much that I have seen that would be interesting to relate but my accommodation for writing are so poor that I shall defer it till another time. Our march was over the same road that Sheridan fought the Rebels. Dead horses and soldiers’ graves were common sights. At Winchester and Fisher’s Hill, I saw a great many graves.

Source:

Letter from unknown soldier, Appleton Motor (Wisconsin), October 20, 1864, pg. 1

Comments

Post a Comment

Most Popular Posts

Arming the Buckeyes: Longarms of the Ohio Infantry Regiments

Image
     A common question that comes up in conversation about Civil War Buckeye regiments is "What were they armed with?" We are fortunate in that the state of Ohio kept good records of how the regiments were armed when they went into service, this being especially true for those regiments which went into service in 1861 and 1862. The state adjutant general's reports for 1861 and 1862 have been heavily drawn upon to construct this article, as well as consultation with Phil Spaugy who has done extensive research on how Ohio's troops were armed during the war.      Buckeyes carried a fairly wide variety of weapons into the field, and the below article breaks this down into weapons of both domestic manufacture and imported arms. The early days of the war found the state of Ohio practically bereft of longarms; as an example, when the 1st and 2nd Ohio Volunteer Militia left the state in late April 1861, they left unarmed, being armed at Lancaster, Pennsylvania on their way to
Read more

Dressing the Rebels: How to Dye Butternut Jeans Cloth

Image
     In the early days of the Civil War,  the Southern states found themselves with an abundance of cotton but a shortage of cloth with which to make army uniforms. The trade in cloth prior to the war had largely been to send raw cotton or wool north to New England (or Great Britain) where it was converted into usable cloth; but now that trade was broken and the Southern states were thrown upon their own resources in their efforts to properly clothe the Confederate army.  This collection of Confederate enlisted men's frock coats and shell jackets gives some indication of the variety of shades of butternut worn during the war. All of them are shades of yellow brown, some heavier on the yellow and some heavier on the brown. The blue used around the collar or as rank insignia indicates that the soldier was in the infantry. Surviving Confederate uniforms are considered rather rare and command quite a healthy price in the collecting market. For an in-depth study of how Confederate jacke
Read more

Bullets for the Union: Manufacturing Small Arms Ammunition During the Civil War

Image
       Civil War bullets are perhaps the most common item collected from the era; the two armies expended bullets by the millions during the four years’ conflict and spent or deformed bullets of all shapes and sizes have made fascinating and affordable collectibles since the guns went silent in 1865.       I recently acquired a display piece featuring 35 different types of small arms ammunition used during the Civil War, including everything from a small .28 caliber ball up to a .69 caliber three-ring Minie and it triggered some questions: how did the Federal army obtain its small arms ammunition during the war? Where did the lead come from to make the bullets, and where and how was the ammunition manufactured? This post seeks to answer those questions. A typical .58 caliber 3-ring Minie bullet   “Whenever the blasts of war blow in the ears of men who trade in the implements of destruction, they are apt to experience more joy than the true warrior, for then comes the harvest of gain.
Read more

The Vaunted Enfield Rifle Musket

Image
     The English-made Model 1853 .577 caliber Enfield Rifle Musket was widely regarded as the best infantry arm in the world at the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861. Favorable international press describing its efficiency in the Crimean War and in suppressing the Indian rebellion led to the widespread desire of American infantrymen (both Federal and Confederate) to be armed with these accurate and well-made arms. The lock plate of this well-worn P1853 Enfield rifle musket produced in 1862 shows the typical markings of a British-made weapon that made it through the Federal blockade.  ( Army of Tennessee Relics ) Enfield-pattern weapons were imported into the states by the tens and hundreds of thousands during the war years; one estimate stated that the Federal government purchased 500,000 while the Confederates purchased another 400,000. The Confederate government dispatched Captain Caleb Huse to Europe in April 1861 to purchase weapons and Huse focused on securing all the Enfi
Read more

In front of Atlanta with the 68th Ohio

Image
  The arrow corps badge of the 17th Army Corps was worn by many members of the 68th Ohio in the latter days of the war.       Private Edward A. Bigelow of Co. F of the 68th Ohio Volunteer Infantry wrote this brief account of the Battle of Atlanta just two days afterwards to his father back home in Henry County, Ohio. The regiment formed a part of Colonel Robert K. Scott's three regiment all-Ohio brigade consisting of the 20th, 68th, and 78th regiments, being designated the Second Brigade of the Third Division of Frank Blair's 17th Army Corps. Bigelow's letter originally appeared in the Napoleon Press newspaper and was copied in the Toledo Daily Commercial which was providential as no known copies exist today of the wartime Napoleon Press.  
Read more

Straw Already Threshed: Sherman on Shiloh

Image
  W illiam Tecumseh Sherman was enjoying retired life in New York City when just before Christmas in 1889 he was presented with an article written by John Cockerill, a former drummer boy in the 24 th Ohio who was visiting his father Colonel Joseph Cockerill of the 70 th Ohio of Sherman’s division when the Battle of Shiloh began. Cockerill’s article, originally published in the New York Journalist and later featured in the January 1893 issue of Blue & Gray Magazine, Sherman later pronounced as “the best war story ever written” and the truest account of Shiloh.           On New Year’s Day 1890, General Sherman composed the following letter to his friend Marshall P. Wilder thanking him for sending along Cockerill’s article and giving his own explanation of Shiloh. “This to me is straw already threshed for we have fought this battle on paper several times, a much more agreeable task than to fight with bullets,” he concluded. “When in England some years ago I was gratified to liste
Read more

Globules of Adipose Pomposity: Top 11 Worst Buckeye Colonels of the Civil War

Image
Ohio Colonels in the Civil War "They weren't all heroes."      It stands to reason that somewhere in the over 200 regimental-sized organizations that Ohio fielded during the war, a bad apple or two would end up in command. Today's article tackles this admittedly sensitive subject with a top 11 list of Buckeye colonels  who exited the service under less than honorable circumstances during the Civil War. It's a list of cowards, drunks, incompetents, and outright scoundrels whose record adds color (or rather off color) to Ohio's history in the Civil War and is "history that deserves to be remembered."       They are presented in the rough chronological order of their exit from the service. 
Read more

Charging Battery Robinett: An Alabama Soldier Recalls the Vicious Fighting at Corinth

Image
W riting 30 years after the Battle of Corinth, James A. McKinstry of the 42 nd Alabama recalled his experiences storming Battery Robinett with Colonel William P. Rogers of the 2 nd Texas and expressed guilt that it was perhaps his action that brought about the colonel’s demise. “On seeing a line of Federals approaching, and before giving the situation a thought, I immediately raised my gun and fired full into the breast of a Federal sergeant, who was in front of the column, and only a short distance from us.  'Twas then that Captain George Foster shouted, "Cease firing, men! cease firing!" and waved his handkerchief, then I realized the true situation. 'Twas too late! That fatal volley had been turned on our little band from the muzzles of 1,500 muskets. I was still standing just as I was when I fired my last shot, and within a few feet of Colonel Rogers, when a Minie ball went crashing through my left hip and turned me half round; another went tearing through my
Read more

Federal Arms in the Stones River Campaign

Image
  T he following list, constructed after many years of research, lists unit by unit which type of weapons were carried by the Army of the Cumberland during the Stones River campaign. A number of sources were consulted including state ordnance reports, Federal quarterly ordnance reports (thank you Research Arsenal ), Ken Baumann’s Arming the Suckers, regimental histories and memoirs, captured ordnance reports, and consultation with knowledgeable experts in the field of firearms. Some of this information has been shared on the blog before in “ Rosy’s Heavy Metal: Artillery of the Army of the Cumberland ” or “ Shoulder Arms: How Sheridan’s and Davis’s Divisions Were Armed at Stones River ” but this is the first time the army as a whole has been presented. The overall conclusion I drew from looking at this data is that the Army of the Cumberland in December 1862 was an organization in the midst of transformation as far as arms. Many of the regiments still retained their original issue
Read more

I Don't Thirst for More Fight: An Iron Brigade Sergeant Remembers Gainesville and Second Bull Run

Image
The men of General John Gibbon's brigade became known as the Black Hat Brigade since they wore the regulation black Hardee hats like the one shown above that belonged to a soldier in Co. C of the 2nd Wisconsin. Comprised entirely of western regiments (19th Indiana, 2nd, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin, later to be joined by the 24th Michigan), the brigade became well known as "one of the most colorful and distinguished brigades that fought for the Union," stated historian Alan Nolan. After proving their mettle at Gainesville, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, and Antietam, they became known as the Iron Brigade of the Army of the Potomac. The red circle on the hat dates from 1863 and represents the corps badge for the First Brigade of the First Division of the I Army Corps.  The fight at Gainesville, Virginia on August 28, 1862, marked the first time Sergeant Willie Hutchins of Co. B of the 6 th Wisconsin of the Iron Brigade had seen action. The former native of Vermont struggled w
Read more