The purpose of this page is to solicit submissions from original diaries and
other sources that would reveal little known habits, occurrences, attitudes,
etc. from real soldiers. They would be restricted to a paragraph and contain
the title of the source, the year, the theatre and any other information that
would be important. The purpose would be to improve our impressions by
learning more of the day to day life of the soldiers.
Example, I am reading a book about an Illinois regiment. the writer makes
several references to searching for straw for his bedding. on a different
note, there is a reference to the boys finding a bush full of robins and by
morning, the kettle had a fine mess of them------robins? Citation to
follow.
From "The Rough Side of War"
These are from The Rough Side of War. It is a diary of a soldier in the
59th Illinois. They are on the Atlanta Campaign.
He subscribed to the New York Ledger and received his paper by mail on a
weekly basis. The diary is full of references of receiving the paper that
day.
It never occured to me that soldiers would subscribe to papers and receive
them in the field.
May 11, 1864 "...the rebels have grenadiers...".
May 15, 1864 (at Resaca) "At dark, our band got up on the lines and
played tunes... . The example was followed along the lines by other
bands"
April 22, 1864 "Boys are playing marbles and jumping to amuse
themselves. "
July 2, 1864 ...before the campaign began, some of the boys vaccinated
themselves but the vaccination matter was bad and they have awful sore
arms. "
August 26, 1864 "We have lots of Napoleon embryo among us. "
August 27, 1864 "Pitch tents on lines in systematic order" . The
Hospital Corps comes up and puts up about 3 acres of hospital tents.
"
September 2, 1864 "We passed through Jonesborough, the bands playing
and 'files dressed' ".
September 4, 1864 Only 2 privates left in that company present for duty
but they have 8 noncommissioned officers. "
September 7, 1864 "Clean ground off for tent".
A note from Colonel Dave-My observations are that our impression of the
western federal on the campaign for Atlanta may not be accurate.
Note the references to "bands" in the plural.
There are many references to the use of shelter tents. I have only posted
a few of the dozens of entries. That does not coincide with our term of
"campaign camping".
That the Hospital Corps would be present with "3 acres of Hospital
Tents" certainly does not support the popular impression they were
tentless.
As to the reference to playing marbles, do we want to have a Brigade
marble champion? We could start at Culver and whittle it down to a handful
of men that play-off at Gettysburg. Bet my cat-eye can whip your
cat-eye!!!!!!!
All are from the Chatanooga campaign.
12/15/63 They have a "shindig", a dance, over the hills...
page 142
12/19/63...and finally found some mouldy bologna page 145
12/20/63 ...formed the prettiest Christmas trees I ever saw. page 145
12/25/63 ...swearing like a trooper.
page 148
12/26/63 Thats the way the money goes, "pop goes the
weasel".
page 148
and they say they only used the word "image" for photograph
1/16/64 Paid 75 cents for dinner and got Sacketts photo. page 156
1/29/64 ...wish now I had gone with them as the point is a spendid
place to take a picture. page 161
regarding massive casualties from firefights
1/29/64 ...so we went over to our battleground of November 24th. Found
the line held by the opposing Rebels and they were only 40 yards away
from us. We fired at each other for 2 hours. page 161
1/31/64 ...I pitched horse shoes to pass the time. page 162
2/9/64 We ate supper in a restauraunt. page 166
and for the hardcores who insist they were only called
"braces"
2/11/64 I bought a cap, pants, SUSPENDERS and some collars...
page 168
Civil War humor
"Gen. Rosecrans and staff rode along our line and stopped to chat
with the men.
...your front will be like the Irishman's pocket that was full yet had
nothing in it. Do you understand how that was? Why the pocket was full
of holes. The men roared and cheered him and he rode on down the line.
" page 89
I would say their sense of humor was, well, different.
"He says there is a difference between Eastern and Western Union
troops." page 92
10/1863 Chatanooga Campaign
Eastern soldiers transferred West say, " They say they would rather
serve a year on the Potomac than 2 months here. At least they won't find
any featherbeds in it. They load themselves down too heavily. But
now that Washington is more than 80 miles away, they will probably get
along with less baggage. page 113
February 2, 1864 "Groundhog day and a fine day" page
163
February 14, 1864 "It is Sunday and Valentines Day". page
168
The Rough Side of War-diary of a soldier in the 59th Illinois
9/63-Chatanooga Campaign
"General Davis and wife and Mrs. Pope ride through our bivouac. These
ladies must want to see a fight-fairly spoiling for it seems, to be riding
to the front that way." page 76
October 30
"It would seem as reville on bugles and drums is sounding from 3 until
daylight...and they seem to make all the noise possible." page 99-100
Gee, we do this correctly
Oct. 31
Speaking about Eastern troops transferred to the Chatanooga area-
"They also say they had rather serve a year on the Pototmac than 2
months here. They load themselves down too heavily. But now that Washington
is more than 80 miles away, they will probably get along with less
baggage." page 113
From
the Diary of Andrew McDonald who was a private in Company B, 21st
Michigan Volunteer Infantry:
1.
January 1865 from Savannah
Georgia: “The next day we moved in close to the city. It was a dismal
looking place and poverty stricken. I bought a corn cake for $1.50 and
returned to camp.”
2, May 1865: “The weather was very warm but that did not give us much
thought. We started on a friendly race with the 27th corps to
Richmond, Va. 280 miles distant. We reached there in a little more than seven days[,]
ahead of all other troops. The 21st advance
making nearly 40 miles a day.”
3. “Lookout Mountain[,]
Sunday Aug 21st [1864] We got all the ripe peaches & apples we
could eat. There is hundreds of bushels going to
waste. We went to a citizens house about noon and hour our dinner. The man was
a strong union man and he only charged us 25 cts.”
4. “Lookout Mountain[,]
Thursday Sept. 1st. [1864] I
went out six miles to the picketline last night with a load of forage and
rations. I stayed there all night
and came back today.”
5.” Lookout Mountain[,] Thursday Sept. 22
[1864] The 21st Michigan
moved camp today and went out on the picket line to do picket duty.
They are relieved from all Engineer duty here on the mountain. They
are Infantry again the same as they was a year ago. The Regt is greatly
recruited up again about 700 strong, but there is a good many of them sick
now. The rain is falling fast
this evening.”
Bruce
Robere
21st
Michigan
"Books on floriography (the language of flowers) were
widely available to keep the smitten in Victorian times from sending the wrong
message with flowers."
see http://wwwgagirl.com/cards/florio/
and
http://www.seattleflowers.com/floriography.html
ok, here are some more submissions. the book is "the rough side of
war". it is the memoirs of a soldier in the 59th illinois in the
western theatre.
February 9-Sunday notwithstanding this, a sham battle took place which, I,
being on guard, escaped.
page 3
(gee, they had reenactments during the war)
July 22, 1863, Some officers give $8 for 10 lessons in sabre excercise.
page 65
September 4, 1863.....in column at half distance, which is very unusual.
page 74