Camp Griffin, 1861, You're In The Army Now!

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
Wonderful smokey sepia photographs in Library of Congress; no idea why the first call up images are so obvious, they are. 1861. It simply is not the same war, these are not the same skies or camps or generals, leaders, drills and pickets bookended by Appomattox. Time''s fog occludes our eye, stiff little soldiers, generals dripping gilded edges, war steeds, ears a-prick in mid prance, gosh, military bands, bristling brass while infantry bristle bayonets, precision and neatness, all awkward power, force newly unwrapped.
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4th Vermont, Camp Griffin, 1861




You wonder where the packing peanuts, celephane and instructions books might be. Volunteers, a few short, short weeks ago fired with patriotic fervor ate eggs and toast, took what belongings might be allowed then with a sense of unreality said goodbye- to wife and children, to mother and father, to sweethearts, were marched away. But it was war. Camp Griffen, marched over the Long Bridge, away from Washington, DC, through admiring loyalists and hissing sesesh, Camp Griffin.

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A lot of Vermont troops made, or were told to make Camp Griffin Home.
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" In early October the four Vermont regiments (Second through Fifth) were transferred to the large Union encampment called Camp Griffin, where thousands of tents clustered around a hill west of the Chain Bridge less than two miles from the village of Lewinsville. There Forrest and the Vermont men settled in for a season of training and preparatory work among the newly-cleared, rolling hills of northern Virginia "
https://www.stmarys-ca.edu/the-civi...est-little/father-i-done-my-duty/camp-griffin

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The Hotel was directly across the Chain Bridge out of DC- an historian could better tell us what exists there today but this photo is fairly well known know. Troops must have given it longing glances, wondering what hot meals, clean sheets and cold beer might be available to one who was not a soldier off to war.

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This is a little beforehand, am only including it here as an idea of what the soldiers knew was theirs in lieu of a hotel cooked meal. They had been in the service long enough to ascertain from here-on-in, things would be a little different.

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5th Vermont Encampment, Camp Griffin, Lewinsville, Virginia

" The Army of the Potomac's chief, General George McClellan, excelled at training troops, and his soldiers' main business was to prepare for a Spring offensive. The men trained and drilled almost daily in the fall mud and winter snow, then suited up for weekly dress parades, usually on Sunday. Larger and more formal inspections were conducted once a month by General William Brooks, who took charge of the Vermont Brigade— the name given the Second through Sixth Regiments. "
https://www.stmarys-ca.edu/the-civi...est-little/father-i-done-my-duty/camp-griffin

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Part of Camp Griffin's Head Quarters, at least allowed to share what is now and eyebrow raising address, ' Langley ', Virginia.

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I've lost track of which troops this photograph contains because Vermont was of course not the only state whose soldiers trained there. I can't find a final list? It does seems to me, while a photographer scouted life at Griffin it was Vermont and New York?

The site I'm referring to uses a fabulous journal by an infantry soldier, surname ' Forest' who is himself referred to in some sections;

"......infantrymen at Camp Griffin, Forrest rotated tasks, working in the cook tent, building fortifications, and serving on guard and picket details. Soldiers relieved their boredom by playing cards, gambling with dice, writing letters, and drinking whiskey— the last a practice that Forrest noted but promised his mother he would never indulge in. The men supplemented their rations by purchasing butter or tobacco at inflated prices from camp merchants, or "sutlers." More than once, Forrest called on a "pretty Virginian girl" who provided him with a home-cooked supper and a rare chance to socialize with the opposite sex. "I dident hardly know how to handle a knife and fork," an embarrassed Forrest confided to his parents. "
https://www.stmarys-ca.edu/the-civi...est-little/father-i-done-my-duty/camp-griffin


Used this next photo in another thread on photography and RE Lee, how photos were also drawn on? Lee looked MUCH better.
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Camp Griffin, TBC, running out of time this morning.

 

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