Campfire Chat - General DiscussionsThis is a forum for posting discussion topics, questions, current events, and anything else you'd like to chat about. Please post serious Civil War History threads in appropriate History Forums.
Portion of a rebel soldier's description of his entering the state of Maryland in early September 1862.
"In an hour after the passage of the Potomac the command continued the march through the rich fields of Maryland. The country people lined the roads, gazing in open eyed wonder upon the long lines of infantry, that filled the road for miles, and as far as the eye could reach, was the glitter of the swaying points of the bayonets. It was the first ragged Rebels they had ever seen, and though they did not act either as friends or foes, still they gave liberally, and every haversack was full that day at least. No houses were entered -- no damage was done, and the farmers in the vicinity must have drawn a long breath as they saw how safe their property was in the very midst of the army.
On the 10th the Seventeenth defiled through the long avenue of Frederick City, and we were rather disappointed at our reception, which was decidedly cool. This wasn't what we expected. It is true the streets were generally well filled with citizens, and the balconies and porches too, but there was positively no enthusiasm, no cheers, no waving handkerchief and flags -- instead a deathlike silence -- some houses were closed tight, as if some public calamity had taken place; there were many friendly people in the windows and doors, but they seemed afraid to make any manifestation of their feelings -- only smiling covertly."
The following intercepted letter, from a Union lady in Frederick to a friend in Baltimore, thus speaks of the passage of our army.
Quote:
Frederick City, Maryland, September 13th, 1862.
I wish, my dearest Minnie, you could have witnessed the transit of the Rebel army through our streets a day or two ago. Their coming was unheralded by any pomp and pageant whatever. No bursts of martial music greeted your ear, no thundering sound of canon, no brilliant staff, no glittering cortege dashed through the streets, instead came three long dirty columns, that kept on in an unceasing flow. I could scarcely believe my eyes; was this body of men moving so smoothly along, with no order, their guns carried in every fashion, no two dressed alike, their officers hardly distinguishable from the privates -- were these, I asked myself in amazement, were these dirty, lank, ugly specimens of humanity, with shocks of hair sticking through the holes in their hats, and the dust thick on their dirty faces, the men that had coped and encountered successfully, and driven back again and again our splendid legions with their fine discipline, their martial show and colour, their solid battalions keeping such perfect time to the inspiring bands of music? I must confess, Minnie, that I felt humiliated at the thought that this horde of ragamuffins could set our grand army of the Union at defiance. Why it seems as if a single regiment of our gallant boys in blue could drive that dirty crew in the river without any trouble. And then, too, I wish you could see how they behaved -- a crowd of boys on a holiday don't seem happier. They are on the broad grin all the time. Oh! they are so dirty! I don't think the Potomac river could wash them clean; and ragged! -- there is not a scarecrow in the cornfields that would not scorn to exchange clothes with them; and so tattered! -- there isn't a decently dressed soldier in their whole army. I saw some strikingly handsome faces though; or, rather, they would have been so if they could have had a good scrubbing. They were very polite, I must confess, and always asked for a drink of water, or anything else, and never think of coming inside of a door without an invitation. many of them were bare footed. Indeed I felt sorry for the poor, misguided wretches, for some were limping along so painfully, trying hard to keep with their comrades. But I most stop. I send this by Robert, and hope it will reach you safely. Write to me as soon as the route is open. * * * * * *
__________________ "What armies and how much of war I have seen, what thousands of marching troops, what fields of slain, what prisons, what hospitals, what ruins, what cities in ashes, what hunger and nakedness, what orphanages, what widowhood, what wrongs and what vengeance."
This is what I found on the issue, perhaps add to the weight of the letter--
A Guide-Index to the Official Records Of The Union And Confederate Armies, 1861-1865
Volume II:Main Eastern Theater of Operations
MARYLAND
Frederick [City], atlas 136:E-7.
-----evacuation by Union forces Sept. 6, 1862, 107:U136.
-----skirmish near, Sept. 10 [8?], 1862 (Maryland Campaign), 27:Ev157. Not entered in battle lists (a) (b) (c). NOTE:This entry is either misdated or entirely erroneous. The fact that there is no corresponding entry in battle list (c) indicates that recognition was given this skirmish only in the final stages of editing the reports of the Maryland Campaign. No basis for recognition has been found except possibly the reference at 27:535 under the date Sept. 10 to a reconnaissance toward Frederick from Maryland Heights. The report of this reconnaissance at 27:545 indicates that it captured a number of the enemy on Sept. 8 about a mile and a half from Frederick. See also 27:586, 723, 725, 738. This operation is not otherwise recognized. Union cavalry did not approach Frederick from the direction of Washington until Sept. 12 (27:209, 815), but several unrecognized and poorly documented cavalry reconnaissances eastward from Maryland Heights seem to have been made on Sept. 7 and 8 (27:534, 535).
-----skirmishes Sept. 12, 1862 (Maryland Campaign), 27:Ev157, In1140 (Frederick City); 28:In760. Disregard index reference in Serial 27 to report of McClellan and see also 27:42.
-----skirmish June 21, 1863 (Gettysburg Campaign), 43:Ev3; 44:In1048; 45:In1150. See specifically in 44:26 and cp. 44:203; 45:253, 260, 261; Moore, 7:15 (diary of events). Not entered in battle lists (a) (b).
-----skirmish July 7, 1864 (Early's Raid on Washington, Etc.), 70:Ev170, In802; 71:In633. See also 90:1020.
-----skirmish July 8, 1864 (Early's Raid on Washington, Etc.), 70:Ev170, In802; 71:In633; atlas 94:3. See also 90:1020.
----skirmish July 11 [10], 1864 (Early's Raid on Washington, Etc.), 70:Ev170. Union troops engaged per battle lists (a) 21st N.Y. Cav. (b) same, Cos. A, C. NOTE:This entry was based on the corresponding entry in battle list (a), which was derived from a more or less uniform notation in records of events on the return and various co. muster rolls of the 21st N.Y. Cav. The only pertinent casualty notation on the rolls of Cos. A and C is one relating to a man taken prisoner at Frederick on July 10. This place and date of capture are confirmed by Confederate prisoner of war records. Hearsay reports at 71:186, 248, 256 concur in indicating that Union cavalry occupied Frederick on July 10, against resistance according to the last two referenced. See also 70:183, 204; 90:1021.
Battle of Sharpsburg, happened on September 19th, 1862.
From the Union Medical records, there was a huge and active hospital at Frederick, Maryland.
Just some thoughts.
Respectfully submitted for consideration,
M. E. Wolf
Crossin' into Maryland: A southern private's account of his participation and experiences marching with General Lee in the General's first invasion of the North, September, 1862. (continued)
"Another day's march brought us to Hagerstown, where the corn fields and orchards furnished our meals. The situation, in a sanitary point, of our army was deplorable. Hardly a soldier had a whole pair of shoes. Many were absolutely barefooted, and refused to go to the rear. The ambulances were filled with the footsore and sick. Not a man among all the troops had had a change of underclothing since the army left Gordonsville, a month ago, and the consequence was that they were dirty, tattered and infested with vermin; and now I will devote a great many lines to this subject, which the fastidious had better skip.
I am writing of the lights and shadows of a soldier's life, and the two twin evils of vermin and the camp itch were important institutions. They followed Johnny Reb everywhere, staid by him, refused to leave, resisted every effort of force, opposed ever attempt at compromises, and they tarried with him until he doffed the gray uniform for a citizen's suit. Then only did both disappear and vanish out of sight and mind.
These insects, which in camp parlance were called graybacks, first made their appearance in the winter of 1861. At first the soldier was mortified and almost felt disgraced at discovering one of these insects on his person; their crawling made his flesh creep, and energetic efforts were made to hide the secret and eliminate the cause. At first the soldiers used to steal out companionless and alone, and hide in the woods and bushes, with as much secretness and caution as if he was going to commit some fearful crime. Once hid from the eyes of men, he would pursue and murder the crawling insects with a vengeful pleasure, thinking that now he would have peace and comfort of mind, ad be able to hold up his head once more before his fellow men. On his stealthly way back he would be sure to run in on a dozen solitary individuals who tried to look unconcerned, as if indeed they were in the habit of retiring in the dim recesses of the forest for private meditation.
The satisfaction he felt would not last long, in a day or two his body would be infested again, and then, desperate, he would try every expedient -- all to no purpose, it was simply impossible to exterminate them. The men would boil their clothes for hours, in a hissing, bubbling cauldron, dry and put them on, and next day these confounded things would be at work as lively as ever. Even at Fort Warren where underclothing was so plentiful that each man had an entire change for every day in the week, it was found that these pests skirmished around as usual, though where they came from and how they arrived were mysteries never solved. The salamander graybacks had more lives than a cat, and bred and propagated faster than a roe- herring. Once lodged in the seams of the clothing they remained until time mouldered the garments. You might scald, scour, scrub, cleanse, rub, purify, leave them in seathing liquid, or bury the raiment in the ground, but it was wasted labor, for the insects seem to enjoy the process and increased and multiplied under it. On this march particularly, when the troops had no change of clean clothes for weeks, the soldiers were literally infested with them, many used to place their under raiment, during the night, in the bottom of some stream and put a large stone to keep them down; in the morning they would hastily dry them and get a temporary relief. Every evening in Maryland, when the army halted and bivouaced for the night, hundreds of the soldiers could be seen, sitting on the roads or fields, half denuded with their clothes in their laps busily cracking, between the two thumbnails, these creeping nuisances -- a hundred full- fledged fathers of families was not considered an unusual number in one haul. To have a daily examination and execution was a habit just as regularly and naturally indulged in as washing our face and hands."
Respectfully,
Leland
__________________ "What armies and how much of war I have seen, what thousands of marching troops, what fields of slain, what prisons, what hospitals, what ruins, what cities in ashes, what hunger and nakedness, what orphanages, what widowhood, what wrongs and what vengeance."
" In our march along the turnpike, there was not left a ear of corn, or a green apple, in the bordering fields; the soldiery made especially of cooking these vegetables, eating them raw, roasted, boiled, and all mixed in a kind of soup, filling themselves full, but still longing for the meat and bread diet. The actions of the citizens of Hagerstown showed in vivid contrast to Frederick City, for not only were the men and women outspoken in their sympathy for the Southern cause, but they threw wide open their hospitable doors and filled their houses with the soldiers, feeding the hungry, and clothing the naked, as well as their limited means allowed. I saw a citizen in that place absolutely take the shoes off of his feet, in, the streets, and give them to a limping barefooted soldier.
On the morrow, instead of advancing northward the order came to right about face, and march back on the same road we advanced up the evening before; back the brigade retraced its steps, and about 4 o'clock that evening, on the 14th, took position in a cornfield on a sloping hill. A savage attack came from the enemy on our left to break the line, but was repulsed; the musketry firing and cannonading was for a short time very severe; no determined infantry charge was made upon our brigade, though several Yankee batteries shelled the line, and a feeble attack made, which was easily checked, for the regiment was in place behind a fence. The Seventeenth only lost about half a dozen wounded."
__________________ "What armies and how much of war I have seen, what thousands of marching troops, what fields of slain, what prisons, what hospitals, what ruins, what cities in ashes, what hunger and nakedness, what orphanages, what widowhood, what wrongs and what vengeance."
M.E. Wolf, thanks for your addition from the OR's. It seems that Lee's boys had a rather unfriendly welcome in Frederick, but not the case in Hagerstown. It's strange that the attitudes would be so different from the citizens of those two towns, in the same state.
Your post has the battle of Antietam Creek (Sharpsburg) occurring on the 19th, but I believe it was the 17th.
Respectfully,
Leland
__________________ "What armies and how much of war I have seen, what thousands of marching troops, what fields of slain, what prisons, what hospitals, what ruins, what cities in ashes, what hunger and nakedness, what orphanages, what widowhood, what wrongs and what vengeance."
Not only two towns in the same state, but fairly close together, similar size.... And if someone told me that one was more Unionist than the other and asked me to guess which, I'd expect Hagerstown to be more Unionist: while Hagerstown itself is in a valley, you're getting out of the Piedmont area and into the ridge-and-valley region; I'd expect the area, culturally speaking, to be similar to the part of Virginia (just a few miles from Hagerstown) that was so Unionist it seceded from the state, and to adjacent areas of Pennsylvania.
I'm wondering whether what we're seeing is a matter of individual soldiers' perceptions, rather than reality. Anyone have any insights?
I'm wondering whether what we're seeing is a matter of individual soldiers' perceptions, rather than reality. Anyone have any insights?
I'll echo the question, Michael; I'd have thought Hagerstown would be much more unionist than Frederick.
Maybe the lack of Federals in the area made it wiser for the citizens to put away their US flags?
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
On the other hand, Frederick was Unionist enough that Governor Hicks moved the Legislature up there (on the pretext of Union troops passing through Annapolis after the route through Baltimore stopped working) when he was trying to keep Maryland in the Union; Catton describes Maryland as secessionist around the bay but "straight Pennsylvania west of Baltimore."
Frederick was also, perhaps apocryphally, home to Barbara Frietchie (sp?).
" That night, or rather at early dawn of the 15th, the brigade marched towards Sharpsburg; the men had not a mouthful to eat, and squads from the different companies obtained permission to forage for themselves and comrades. I was on one of these details; leaving the road and striking across the fields, we entered into a yard in the centre of which stood a fine brick mansion; we knocked at the door -- there was no response, and then after waiting awhile we entered and found to our astonishment that it was deserted. The inmates had fled in anticipation of a battle -- the fighting at Boonsboro a few hours before had evidently frightened them away. Not an article had been carried off -- the parlor door was open -- there stood the piano, the pictures depended from the wall, the curtains hung as gracefully as if some hand has just arranged its fold; we entered the dining room -- there rested the cat on the windowsill -- everything seemed so natural, it was difficult to realize that the hostess would not enter and welcome us in a few moments.
We had no time to linger, the cannon sounded their warning note; besides, we had come to get something to eat, and not to make any voyage of discovery. So finding nothing in the pantry, nor in the kitchen, we went to the spring and filled our canteens with water, then to the dairy at the foot of the hill, and discovered several buckets and cans of milk which had been placed there last night by some visible means; we filled our canteens with the lacteal fluid, and noticing the loft, a room over the dairy, we climbed up. found it a perfect storeroom. Several barrels were on stands, and on investigating the contents of one, it was found to be cider, and then the canteens were emptied of milk and filled with the juice of the apple. Then an exclamation from one of the party brought us over to him, and he showed us a barrel of apple brandy. That cider in the canteens was soon poured on the floor, and the apple jack took its place. An animated discussion took place. The whole squad, except the sergeant, wanted to carry the barrel and leave everything else behind, but then came the difficulty about obeying orders. The discussion waxed high, and to end the matter the sergeant stove in the head of the barrel with the butt of his musket, and the precious liquid that would have made glad, for a time at least, the whole brigade, poured in a useless stream upon the floor.
In the room was half a dozen tubs of apple butter, which we confiscated for the use of our comrades, and carried it off with us. Starting towards the reflected steel, that flashed in the sunlight like a beacon to the mariner, showing us where our troops were marching, we hurried after and soon caught up with them. I will drop for a second the character of a veracious chronicler, and not mention how many lips were glued long and lovingly to the mouths of those canteens. The owner's health was honestly drunk, however, none asking or caring whether he was Yank or Reb." Source: Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. X. Richmond, Va., Oct. And Nov., 1882. Nos 10-11
__________________ "What armies and how much of war I have seen, what thousands of marching troops, what fields of slain, what prisons, what hospitals, what ruins, what cities in ashes, what hunger and nakedness, what orphanages, what widowhood, what wrongs and what vengeance."
" Late in the evening the column halted near Sharpsburg, a little village nestling at the bottom of the hills, a simple country hamlet, that none outside, save perhaps a postmaster, ever heard of before, and yet which in one day awoke to find itself famous, and the hills the locality where Rip Van Winkle lived his days. One could almost imagine he saw the shambling figure, followed by his dog, disappear up the far street, and from just such a casement Dame Gretchen must have fired her farewell shot at her lazy, good for nothing spouse.
The hamlet was deserted now -- more so probably that our Sweet Auburn, the loveliest village of the plain, ever was -- not a soul was to be seen, the setting sun tinged the windows with its glowing rays, and made more vivid the dark background of the high hills beyond. The setting sun, ah, many eyes, all unconscious, looked their last upon the glowing incandescence as they stood on the crest watching the bright luminary going down.
"O, setting sun awhile delay,
Linger on sea and shore,
For thousand eyes now gaze on thee,
That shall not see thee more;
A thousand hearts beat proudly now,
Whose race like thine is o'er."
Leland
__________________ "What armies and how much of war I have seen, what thousands of marching troops, what fields of slain, what prisons, what hospitals, what ruins, what cities in ashes, what hunger and nakedness, what orphanages, what widowhood, what wrongs and what vengeance."
CivilWarTalk.com -
A free and friendly Civil War community. 
Crossin' into Maryland 
Linear Mode
