Saturday, May 16, 1863. All in camp.

"Camp of 12th Vermont Vol.
.Near Rappahannock R. R. Bridge Va.
May 16th. 1863

"My Dear Wife: . . Speaking of Wolf Run - Col. Randall's whole baggage train was taken night before lastbetween Wolf Run & Occoquan - the mules & horses - thirty-two in all - carried off - the stores taken & the waggons broken. It was probably done by bushwackers.

"You ask where the other Regts. are. the 13th. is still at Occoquan, the 14th. at the Shoals, the 15th. 2-1/2 miles above us, at Bealton, the 16th. at Union Mills. We are stretched out fifty miles. Genl. Stannard makes his headquarters at the Mills, & also Genl. Abercrombie. How long we shall have to stay here I do not know. . . .
From your affectionate husband Roswell Farnham." UVM

"Saturday 16th Off duty i.e. Not on guard or picket & so quiet in Camp. Nothing new or alarming." ~ Diary of Horace Barlow (UVM), 120, Horace Barlow, Pvt., Co. C, 12th Regiment

"May 16. Companies have been scouting over the river; and the result is, we have more horses than we had before our teams were captured. Our soldiers, who had been captured on the 14th, came in. They had been paroled, when a little south of the Bull Run battle field; but not according to the cartel." ~ Lt. Edwin Palmer, 13th Regiment, The Second Brigade: or, Camp Life, By a Volunteer (1864)

[Forty years later Sturtevant recalls: "a large company of boys went over on the south side of the Occoquan as a scouting party and returned with eight horses and one man. The boys now claimed to be about even for those we lost on the 14th. Some of the horses were good, but most of them were played out, unfit for work or riding." ~Ralph Orson Sturtevant, Pictorial History of the 13th Regiment Vermont Volunteers  167 (1910)]

"May 16. Reveille at five o'clock. We have a model camp now -- streets regularly laid out and policed every morning." ~ John C. Williams, Corporal, Co. B, 14th Regiment, Life in Camp 121 (1864)

"16th. Quite windy. Are going to move back the length of butternuts in order to have shade in front of our tent." ~ Diary of Oliver A. Browne, Co. K, 15th Regiment


"OSCAR B. HUBBARD died in our regimental hospital at Camp Widow Violet on the Occoquan, and quite suddenly. Corporal Hubbard  was present at the organization of the Highgate Company, September 11th, 1862, and at this time was 19 years of age, six feet tall, gray eyes, dark hair and was a fine looking and appearing young man,... He was taken sick at Camp Widow Violet with typhoid fever and died May 16th, 1863. His body was sent home and buried in the family lot in the town of Georgia, Vt. " ~ Ralph Orson Sturtevant, Pictorial History of the 13th Regiment Vermont Volunteers  728 (1910)

Friday, November 7, 1862, Snow in Camp Vermont

Nov. 7, 1862: Col. Blunt takes winter
quarters with two fireplaces.

"On Friday Nov. 7th, after two or three days of rough chilly weather, we had a genuine snowstorm, not one of your soft sticky Injun snows, but a regular driver, such as you frequently have in Vermont in December, which left us at least four inches of good solid snow on the ground, and sent every man not on duty shivering to his quarters or in search of some friendly fire. It was my good fortune to be detailed as guard and to stand the storm for one turn of two hours, but before my turn came again the guards were called in to go with their respective companies to Alexandria. After their guns arrived we were obliged to right about and march straight back to camp again, completely verifying the old adage of the King of France marched up the hill with 10,000 men and then marched down again". ~ Hezron G. Day, pvt., Company C, Sixteenth Regiment, Letter of November 9, 1862

"Friday 7th Commenced snowing this morning & snowed quite hard all day. This evening it is quite blustering & seems quite winterlike. We have a stove in our tent & it is nearly as comfortable as a house. Regt fell in at 1 P.M. & marched to Alexandria to receive new guns in place of our old ones, they being poor french muskets. Marched to A. & immediately turned about & came home without our guns, dont know the reason, perhaps they had not arrived, or perhaps they are going to bring them to us with teams." ~ Joseph Spafford,  1st Lieutenant, Company E, Sixteenth Regiment, Letter, November 9, 1862

"Camp Vermont, Near Alexandria November 7, 1862

"All the regiments that have suitable arms are obliged to go out on picket a distance of about 5 miles.  Our regiment keep the same old guns they brought from Vermont.  To-day, and pursuance to previous orders, we march to Alexandria to change guns, but on arriving at the city, we had the order to “right about march” to our camping grounds again, with the same old arms.–Thus it is we are marched from one post to another availing nothing, and what makes it seem worse, we don’t know why.  We are to have the Austrian rifle and musket.

"The health of the brigade as far as I am able to learn is very good.  Of the 12th Regiment only eleven are in the hospital–many are very sick.  Only four out of the Regiment have died: 1 from West Windsor Co., 1 from Woodstock Co., 1 from Northfield Co. and one from the Burlington Co., I think.  

"The sanitary condition of this regiment is better or equal to any other in the brigade.  None have died and but very few are sick.  Some 30 or 40 are in quarters, that is they are off duty to rest, to prevent them being sick.  They are not medicated at all.  I learned from our worthy surgeon that means for getting hospital supplies have been very limited.  There is no hospital yet for the regiment, but are to have one soon.

"The Assistant Surgeon George Spafford, has been present only a short time, but as far as I am able to learn, is liked very much, as is our prompt and energetic quartermaster, James G. Henry.  During all our removals from one camp to another, which have been numerous, we have not at any time been short of rations, or at least so but that we have got along quite comfortably.

"This morn it commenced snowing early, and continued until 1:30 P.M.  The snow on the level is from 3 to 4 inches deep and in some places two feet.  A colder more wintry storm I never witnessed in Vermont in the month of November.  The men to-day, as they fall into “roll call,” make me think of the poor yearlings as they gather around the farmer’s barn at the approach of Winter. One of the men just took an icicle from over the parlor window and brought in, which measured 23 inches.  The men are complaining bitterly of the “sunny South” with very good reasons I think.  More anon. ~ E. D. Keyes, 1st Lieutenant, Company H, Sixteenth Regiment, writing as "Duane" in Letter of November 7, 1862 to Bellows Falls Times, published November 14,1862.

"We are now about two miles from the rebel city of Alexandria and 6 miles from Mt. Vernon. ... It has snowed hard all day & blown a hurrican & the boys have had a hard time in their  "shelter"  tents. We are encamped near an old Virginia mansion owned by G. Mason Esq. one of the regular F. F. V's. He is a secessionist at heart. His house is a two story one & things were once in good shape, but his slaves have all run away & the troops have ruined him.** He has a wife & two children - one a daughter who he says is sick & a son or perhaps grandson twelve or fourteen years of age. He keeps his family very much secluded & has a notice put up that he does not wish to be troubled by applications from the troops for accommodations.* We have occupied his barn with our horses and today Col. Blunt, who has command of the brigade moved his head quarters into the house - into two vacant rooms in one wing. He has two big fire places & looks as cheerful as possible. Rather different from our tents, tho' we are comfortable. Soon we shall have comfortable huts made & then we can bid defiance to the weather.  By next week Saturday, the whole Regiment will be in huts if nothing happens." ~ Maj. Roswell Farnham, 12th Regiment, Letter of November 7, 1862

Edwin F. Palmer , graduated Dartmouth 1862
 enlisted in in Company "B" of the 13th Regt,
promoted to sergeant,
commissioned second lieutenant 4 Nov., 1862

"The morning is cold and windy. By eight o'clock it begins to snow, quite large and frequent drops. The soldiers are disappointed, not expecting it so early in the year, and then their tents are not fitted for it-no fires in them, except the commissioned officers'. They have small stoves carried on the wagons. Snow and sleet fall all day, and by night it is five inches deep. Soon the boys are stirring, to get fires in their tents some way; for they fairly shiver in them, and it is too stormy for drills, or work on the forts, or any duty save guard or picket, which knows no storms, no Sabbaths, no nights. Every soldier turns mason, and they make little fire-places out of stone or brick, which they have brought half a mile from an old camp ground, on their backs. They dig a channel under the tent, some three feet long; brick up the sides; cover these with flat stones or pieces of iron; and at the end for a chimney. Some of these worked finely; others smoked intolerably. Now you see the boys, tears streaming from their eyes, coming out of their tents, the smoke rolling after them." ~ Lt. Edwin Palmer, 13th Regiment,  The Second Brigade: or, Camp Life, By a Volunteer (1864)

* See letter of November 5th from Mason to Col. Blunt complaining that the guards placed around his " House to preserve my sick Family from annoyance," under  "some misapprehension" had arrested his "Family Physician coming to visit my sick Daughter, &... - This morning on going out, I find myself & Family prisoners; as the Guards will not allow us to pass beyond their immediate circle, even to my wood-pile & Barn...." - 

** For further letters and details about Mason and Camp Vermont see Frank F. Rice, Co. E, 16th Reg., letter one, in
Frank Fletcher Rice to Family

Wednesday, October 29, 1862. Orders come at evening to leave Camp Casey

"My own angel wife,

... We move over to Fort Seward, Va. tomorrow. Am sorry as I was getting my camp into shape. Am in great haste to-night. Will write again as soon as we get into camp again. Yr. Devoted husband, Wheelock" ~ Col. Wheelock G. Veazey, Letter to Julia, October 29, 1862

"The 2nd  Vermont Brigade, composed of the 5 new regiments are to move tomorrow - Wednesday morning, in accordance with orders just received to Camp Seward in Virginia, three miles from the Alexandria side of Long Bridge. 

"Today we were assured by an officer on Gen. Casey’s staff that we were likely to remain here at least two months. Accordingly we purchased stoves for our tents, and ordered lumber for the floors. My stove is not yet up, it is a little sheet iron concern oval in shape with two holes on top six inches in diameter with covers. The funnel runs out through a rip made in the tent. My tent is just like the one that we had in the 11th Regiment.

"Today I rode down Pennsylvania Avenue past Willards Hotel and Presidential Mansion to corner of G and 22nd street to the office of Capt. Robinson who furnished forage for officers horses. I went to headquarters to learn how to untie the particular red tape used in this connection.

"The tenement occupied by “Old Abe” is respectable in appearance, and I should judge decently comfortable. It is large enough for his family, I presume, but not so large as I had supposed. I did not call as I am the last comer and ordinary etiquette would forbid my making the first visit, in as much as he could have known of my arrival by consulting the War Department. 

"Nearly opposite the War Office, I was stopped by a patrol and asked for my pass. I cheerily told him that I had just come to town and was on my way on official business to Secretary Stanton. “All right” said the credulous officer and I passed on. Ordinarily it requires paper from the Colonel, Brigadier, Maj. Generals to visit the city. But I have had as yet no curiosity to see any of the sights.

"Our mess is composed of the Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel, Major, Adjutant, Quartermaster. We left the chaplain to dine with the surgeons, and non-commissioned staff have a mess by themselves. Today we had sweet and Irish potatoes, pork, sausages, beef steak for dinner with pickles, cheese, and coffee. For tea, bread, butter, cheese, tea, and pies and peaches. When we get away from Washington, we shall not fair so well.

"The nights are foggy and cold, worse than at Brattleboro I think. I caught a magnificent cold Monday night, but it is all in my head and nose. My appetite is good and I sleep well.

"A large number of the men have taken cold sleeping on this ground. They are not so sick as to be unfit for duty, only coughing and blowing their noses." ~ Lt. Col. Charles Cummings, Letter No. 2. October 29, 1862

"We have just rec'd orders to move tomorrow morning at eight o'clock. This is an order that is to be acted upon. We are now getting ready. I feel sorry to break up camp, as we have a nice camping ground & everything comfortable. We may not be so fortunate next time.

"All of the new Vermont troops moved in here together with  us this morning, making five regt. 12th, 13,14,15,16.  And Col. Blunt is place in command of the brigade. It is at present only temporary but he may be made brigadier general. He will command the brigade in our move in the morning for we all move together. ~ 

Roswell Farnham, Lt. Co., 12th Regiment. Letter of October 29, 1862

"At nine o'clock at night orders came that we must have our knapsacks packed, haversacks filled with two days' rations, and be ready to start at eight in the morning Where are we going? This is the question." ~ Edwin Palmer,  13th Regiment,  The Second Brigade: or, Camp Life, By a Volunteer (1864) 

"Before the order to pitch our tents was hardly completed, a new order came, rebrigading the five Vermont regiments by themselves, under Col. Blunt of the 12th, the ranking Colonel, constituting it the 3d Brigade, Casey's Division, and ordering it to march to Camp Seward, nine miles across the river into Virginia." ~ John C. Williams,  14th Regiment, Life in Camp:... a history of the Fourteenth.