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Letters, Diaries, and Memoirs
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Isabella Morrison Fogg, letter
November 11, 1862
“… stopped at Middletown, and found them very comfortable, men happy, said the ladies were very kind, went on to Kedarsville [sic - Keedysville], but what a painful contrast! Then we found several Maine men, in a church and three other buildings occupied as Hospitals, lying on the bare floor with their coats for pillows… We then went up to Smoketown Hospital, here we found 30 Maine men. This place is in most miserable condition, the men complain very much… The effluvia arising from the condition of these grounds is intolerable, quite enough to make a man in perfect health sick, and how men can recover in such a place is a mystery to me… [We] then proceeded to Harpers Ferry. Here the sick are in a fearful condition, in every old house and church and hundreds on the ground… Again, we went to Smoketown, hoping to find them in a more comfortable condition than when we were last there, but how sadly were we disappointed… You could have seen the poor fellows huddled together, with their pallets of straw on the ground, their tents connected by flyes… many without walls and no stoves… The exposure has been such that diphtheria has broken out among them, and in nearly every case proves fatal.”
David Lang, letter
September 7, 1862
“I have not visited the city yet, but learn from those men who have that the citizens receive them most kindly & entertain them sumptuously free of charge, which said entertainment is just at this time what we soldiers most need for we have not fared sumptuously on these rapid marches, in fact, the hard fare & harder marching has reduced my company to about twenty five men. The remainder had been left along the line of our march to recruit their health.”
David Lang, letter
September 7, 1862
“I have just finished making one hundred & fifteen biscuits, without grease or soda, & Henry Hull is baking them for our next ten days rations. Since coming to Virginia we officers are not allowed to buy any more from government commissary than is issued to a private, & being on the frontier, no one will trust a slave here as cook, so we have to draw our rations and cook them just [like] the other men do. Just imagine me sitting upon the ground, in my shirt sleeves & barefooted, writing upon my knee by the light of the fire that is cooking my bread, writing to a young lady. What a fine sketch for Harpers Weekly.”
Charles Lee, letter
May 9, 1861
"Twenty five armed men under B T Johnson left here this morning for Harpers Ferry and thirty five Baltimore ruffians the same that attacked Mass troops are now within one mile of this city on their way to join the Virginia rebels Communicate these facts to the War Dept"
Osceola Lewis, memoir
1866 (publication date)
“Upon reaching ‘Monocacy,’ or Frederick Junction, about 4 P. M., some fifty miles from the city, instructions came from Major General Wallace, commanding the Department, to disembark the troops and to proceed no further until specially ordered. That night we bivouacked on the loyal soil of Maryland…The country was rich with golden harvest crops and nature clothed the scenery with the finest garb of the season. From every house on the line of the railroad, as the long trains of troops rolled by, flags and handkerchiefs were waving; old men and matrons, fair ladies and wondering children, farm laborers and Negroes, looked on, greeted, cheered and wished up ‘God speed.’ The contrast between these fertile fields and peaceful homes, and the barren wastes and desolated places of war-begrimed Virginia, was so impressive that we imagined now the air was purer—the water sweeter—and that our grassy couches equalled [sic] in comfort the downy cushions of luxuriant home. To borrow and expression of Captain S--, it was a consoling fact that ‘if a man was to be killed in such a country, he would at least receive a decent Christian burial.’”
Charles N. Tenney, letter
November 11, 1862
“…we -- our entire Corps -- are in the rear, actually remaining to garrison this famous "City of Burnt Shops", and the surrounding Heights!!!”
Charles N. Tenney, letter
November 25, 1862
“Oh! do tell me all about Thanksgiving-dinner and all. How I would enjoy a piece of mince or pumpkin pie, but I must content myself with ‘Hard-tack, etc.’"
J. Newton Terrill, memoir
July 1864
“Frederick City was filled with rebel wounded, as our boys had made every shot tell; if the first line were missed they were sure to hit one of the rear lines. Two hundred thousand dollars was demanded from the citizens, or the place would be laid in ashes; the amount was paid by the banks; the city was pillaged and the houses robbed.”
Angela Kirkham Davis, memoir
1861-1862
“A very handsome flag which we had at the front of our house was taken down one night, torn to shreds, and thrown all over the step and pavement…I have regretted many time that I did not save the pieces and sew them together and keep it as a souvenir…”
Angela Kirkham Davis, memoir
1861-1862
“Families, as well as the closest friends, were divided upon the question at issue…making it extremely unpleasant in our social intercourse…Our nearest neighbors, my dearest friends, were Rebels.”