Dan Masters' Civil War Chronicles

I n the Second Battle of Corinth fought October 3-4, 1862, the Federal Army of Mississippi under General William S. Rosecrans a total of 2,520 casualties, including  324 men missing or captured. Among those captured was Corporal Francis E. Engle of the 14th Wisconsin Infantry. In the following letter written home to his family from Benton Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri, Engle describes his time in captivity, his fare consisting largely of cornbread and fresh beef. The corporal was promptly exchanged, returning to Federal hands about two weeks after first being captured on the battlefield at Corinth.            Corporal Engle’s description of his time in captivity first saw publication in the November 13, 1862, edition of the Manitowoc Herald published in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

W riting to his sister Flora in far-off Wisconsin, Private Herbert Smalley of the 7 th Ohio reported how well soldiering agreed with him; as a matter of fact, he bragged that he had “the most agreeable bunk in the regiment.”           “I wish you could be here beside me a moment, looking over my portfolio at the motley crowd who are scoffing their allowance of hard bread,” he noted. “The different portions of the glove are pretty well represented here in our bunk. We have a downeast Yankee, several Germans, a Welshman, a Swiss, three Englishmen, an Irishman, a Californian, and three Buckeyes. I think we have the most agreeable bunk in the regiment. We have three farmers, one rolling mill man, one furnace man, one file cutter, one tailor, one watchmaker, one second-hand theater actor, one sailor, one fisherman, one brakeman, one jack-of-all-trades, and one printer besides one candidate for the lunatic asylum. Don’t you think we have quite a...