Sunday, May 10, 1863. The 2nd Brigade holds a 50-mile front

Rappahannock Station.

"10th. Went down to Rappahannock station. Met with some Rebs at Kettle Run Bridge. They had fired the bridge and torn up the track. Were at work when we came along but skee-daddled at the sight of the train. We succeeded in saving the bridge and left a guard. When we came back the bridge, about one mile this side, on Cannon Run, was on fire. Just in time to save it. Saw the Rebs, about fifty of Stewart's Cavalry. They intended to capture the train, but found us enough for them." ~ Diary of Oliver A. Browne, Co. K, 15th Regiment


"Sunday 10th. On guard & detailed again as Col's orderly. Had a pleasant time. Day very hot. This A.M. 3 negroes came in & were put in the guard-house, as usual, to await the arrival of the train. About 10 A.M. who should come in but John Minor Botts for the three. One of them was very white & quite intelligent. Of Course, Col Blunt declined to give them up, till he consulted higher authority. I think, personally his feelings & principles would prefer to allow them their freedom, but as it is an important case, as it would establish a precedent, he prefers not to be responsible. I hardly see how they can be given up, after the Presidents' proclamation, but undoubtedly he would receive compensation, in time."~ Diary of Horace Barlow (UVM), 116-17, Horace Barlow, Pvt., Co. C, 12th Regiment

Bristoe Station.

"Bristow Station, Virginia

"Sunday, May 10, 1863

"Dear Parents

"We are still at Bristow, having been ordered to remain here four days longer than we thought when we first came out here. We have had considerable bad weather since we came, but have enjoyed ourselves very well notwithstanding We are expecting to go back to camp today. The 15th has left its old camp and gone down to Warrenton Junction.

"The fruits of our labor thus far have been 45 or 50 contrabands, one sword, one double barreled shot gun, and one carbine, which we found concealed in the houses of citizens. Also about forty Sesesh fowls, and a lot of hams, meal, etc. The cavalry that was with us has picked up a dozen or so of citizens accused of being sesesh in their proclivities and actions.

"It is as beautiful a Sabbath morning today as ever was; the grass looks green and thrifty, and the apple trees all in bloom. A few of the boys have just gone up the railroad with a hand car for a ride, and are now coming back. They were rather careless, as they had neither arms nor equipment along.

"Since we came here we have seen some good looking white women, the first we have seen since we came into Virginia. From one thoroughly Sesesh widow lady we have taken at least thirty Negroes, found a carbine secreted in one of her beds, etc. We have also in some of our excursions found some good Union people, but those that can be relied on are few in comparison with the whole population. The Unionists are all northern people, mostly from NY or NJ, who have worked their own lands, and have never owned slaves. However, slaves and slavery fast are disappearing from Prince William County. Brentsville, the former county seat, is a little one-horse place so thoroughly Sesesh that there is only four to seven men left there, and unless they are more exemplary in their morals, than most of the people here, they will stand a chance to have their numbers reduced whenever we get in some more cavalry here.

"Stoneman's Cavalry, I presume you have learned, has returned to the Rappahannock. They sent in some thirty prisoners yesterday, including one major, and two or three carloads of contrabands, all smart active young men. 'Tis said that Stoneman has twenty acres of land covered all over with mules, horses and cattle, all standing just as thick as they can be tied, which he brought with him on his return from his recent raid. General Stahl is getting his division all down on the Rappahannock, and it is said that he is going to make another raid while Stoneman takes a rest .

"The weather now is quite hot....We have learned that we are not going to be relieved before tomorrow, and then 'tis thought that the 13th will come out here. We would certainly rather stay here than go back to camp. The boys in camp have drawn all our boards, stovepipes, etc. They would like very well to have us come back and help them do the picket duty, which is coming rather severe on them just now, as there is only one regiment in Union Mills.

"We were deeply disappointed when we learned that Hooker's movement had failed, for we had an abiding faith in the success of this grand movement and even now we have hopes that he has only returned to try it again under what he may consider more favorable auspices.

"I saw Gen. Stahl yesterday. He was on board the cars. Not a very remarkable looking man for a General, though his men say that he is the only man that can take a regiment of cavalry and break a regiment of infantry. The boys are all well and in good spiriting full of fun and frolic, hale and hearty, ready to attack anything from a box of hard tack to a band of bushwhackers. Give my regards to all my friends if I have any, and tell them that we think of coming back to Virginia after the war is over, provided we can get some confiscated land...

"Not long ago the Rebs set fire to a bridge not more than a mile and a half from us but it was put out without damaging the bridge seriously. There are a few bands of these Rebs about here first in one place and then another whom we are not shrewd enough to catch. 

"There is a guard here from Co. "F" now that came down in the cars to guard the train. We need a whole regiment here instead of one company, and if the 13th is coming, I am glad of it. Good bye for now ... H.G. Day" ~ Hezron G. Day, pvt., Company C, Sixteenth Regiment, Letter of May 10, 1863


Camp Widow Violet near Occoquan ferry

"Camp Carusi May 10, 1863 

"Dear Mother

"Gen. Stannard has been on a visit to this regiment and has gone away
today. He stayed till after inspection. We all like his appearance first-rate. He does not appear much like Gen. Stoughton. I hear that he Stoughton has been exchanged and that he is in Washington. All we ask is that they will keep him there and not give him the command of this Brigade again, for we are well suited with the change we have had.

"We have been in this camp one month and nine days, so we begin to think it most time to move. The 12th at Rapahanoc Station and the 15th at Warrington guarding the railroad. We may not move for some time but we have not staid out about so long anywhere, so I think we shall move.

"I am going to Mount Vernon in a day or two if nothing happens. I do not suppose it will do me any good but I want to go. We are so near now and it may be the only chance I shall ever have. It is only 7 miles from here and I can get a pass for two days, so I shall be all right if I go. When next time you write, let me know if you have got my money that I have sent. If you have, do what you are a mind to with it--only have it safe.  ..." ~ James Willson, 13th Regt., pvt, Co. B. , Letter #42, March 14, 1863 (VHS)

January 18, 1863. "It will take generations efface to from their minds the the irreparable mischief that treason as we call it has done. "

"Fairfax Court House, Jan 18th, 1863

"Dearest Wife,

"My own health remains most excellent. Indeed I hardly remember the time when I have been uniformly so well. The weather is now quite cold to the “natives” and to some of our soldiers, but it seems quite mild to me. I do not dress any warmer than when at Brattleboro in October, for I wear the same pants, vest and the same thin blouse. Yet I ride an hour or so nearly everyday without any overcoat or any addition except cap and gloves to what I wear in my office. I have not had a symptom of a cold for six weeks nor an ache except I sometimes get quite tired out in listening to the same complaints repeated with scarcely a change or variation continuously. ....

"It is rumored that we shall soon move towards Thoroughfare Gap soon move with what truth I do not know but the rumor seems plausible enough. I have made up my mind that in the army there is no abiding place. My experience in preparing for your reception at Camp Vermont settled that question.

"I suspect that I shall have to visit Washington this week. We have taken several political prisoners that will probably find a resting place in the Old Capital and I shall be wanted to give my evidence against them, unless prospects of an immediate forward movement prevents.

"The President’s proclamation has waked up all the latent bitterness in the Southern heart, and secesh is on its rampage. The atrocious sentiments uttered in this messages and speeches by Jeff Davis find echoes more or less strong in this part of Virginia. What is to be the result is beyond human here. I am becoming a little shaky in my faith that the “Union of these States” is to be preserved. Our prospects are darker than ever before; and then is so much division at the North that when the time of one nine months men expires I do not know who will take their places. Look at the matter in another point of view. The feeling of bitterness engendered in the hearts of all the South including those who fought against secession until it became a fixed fact, against the old Union is one that will never be out lived. It will take generations to efface from their minds the irreparable mischief that treason as we call it has done. ...

"There is nothing new in camp. Mrs. Proctor was here a few days with her husband in his camp, but I did not see her nor know of her visit until she had gone. Abner White was my “orderly” yesterday and thought he should like the place every day when the guard is detailed from the 16th Regiment. He is a good boy and a good soldier. There have been ten deaths in the regiment. 8 of which were in the Wilmington Company. 

"Quite a number of officers have resigned - a way we have of getting rid of inefficient officers, they having that opportunity or the alternative of being sent before a board of examination. Among these is Adjutant Bridgman who was a very inefficient officer.

"The Colonel is in excellent health. So is the major. The 16th is by all odds the crack regiment of the brigade. The men drill superbly.  ~ Lt. Col. Charles Cummings, Sixteenth Regiment, Letter No. 17, January 18, 1863. VHS.

Jaunuary 15, 1863. Sickness in Camp

"Jan. 15. As soon as breakfast is over, all the companies, led by the major, with spades and axes, start to clear another place for the camp. We have plenty of rations; it is a warm day, and most are in excellent spirits. But the boys look at each other, laughing, and say: "This is putting down rebellion in earnest." We are soon on the ground,-a dry side hill,-near a grove of Norway pines, a hundred rods to the left of the twelfth regiment. It is covered with logs, brush, and tree-tops. But the work goes bravely on. The streets re-marked out for each company; and each clears its own. 

At noon we go back for dinner, carrying our axes and spades; for one, if he happens to be in want, does not scruple from other regiments, or any other company but his own, to steal such things, reasoning in this way: "These tools belong to Uncle Sam; I am working for the old fellow; this axe is better than mine, and I can do more work with it; so much clear gain!" This argument has morality enough in it to still the consciences of most soldiers if they have chopped long with a dull axe, and have a chance to get their hands on a sharper one; and so much logic, that no one pretends to refute it, only, if he has lost one, by improving the first opportunity that he has to steal another. In the afternoon we nearly finished policing the ground."  ~ Lt. Edwin Palmer, 13th Regiment,  The Second Brigade: or, Camp Life, By a Volunteer (1864) 

"Camp near Fairfax Courthouse Courthouse

"January 15, 1863

"Dear Parents

"A little leisure and plenty of candle, so why not write a few moments before bedtime. To he sure, the week is not quite out, but still as I have time I might as well improve it as well as I can as I can see we move at any moment, though the only sign of moving that for the last two days we have been engaged in fixing up for the winter: building railroads, corduroy sidewalks, turnpiking our streets, arranging the drains, etc. The colonel says that things look more like staying now than they every have before. 

"The mail has just come in bringing yours of last Sunday, which like all letters from home was eagerly perused. It seems that when small things get into the papers they look remarkably large to the readers. For instance, The Rebel raid near Fairfax seems to have been magnified into quite a battle by the newspapers.

"You might possibly be astonished to learn that some thirty of the 16th's boys, myself among them, have been put in Fairfax jail for twenty four hours, though for no particular misdemeanor. I have before written you that we have to send over on a patrol guard to the Courthouse every few days. Well, it so happened that on that particular day there were 30 or 40 more men detailed than were needed, and the supernumeraries were quartered in the rascally old jail and left at liberty to skedaddle around the city and see the sights which were not great. 

"Uncle Joseph is quite sick, though I hope that he will be better soon. He had a bad cold and headache and it seems altogether to have made him sick. Co. "F" lost two more men last night,* making six in all from that one company, against only two or three from the rest of the regiment, and the same company lately sent home eight invalids. Strange, isn't it, there is more sickness in camp now than there has usually been." ~ Hezron G. Day, pvt., Company C, Sixteenth Regiment, Letter of January 15, 1863

* Albert Allen, Wilmington, VT, age 22,, Pvt, Co. F, 16th Vt. died 1/14/63; Edward E. Burrington, Halifax, VT, age 27, Pvt, Co. F, 16th Vt. died 1/14/63.  See  Tuesday, December 9, 1862. 

December 10, 1862, Change of command; officers' housing.

Edwin H. Stoughton, 24
Chester

“Camp Vermont, Fairfax County, VA

December 10th, 1862

“This evening I am in the Colonel’s old quarters. He has moved into his new house, and I am building mine. I shall complete it before Sunday and there I shall be ready to receive company. … The whole cash expense to me will be about $3.00 - for lock, hinges, spikes, and latches. The timber is confiscated and the labor besides what I do is done by the men.

“…Gen. Stoughton arrived in camp last Sunday and assumed the command of the regiment. John Wheeler and John Curtis Tyler are not of the staff. Capt. John S. Tyler of company C, 2nd Vermont Regiment to be chief staff as Assistant Adjutant General provided he can get relieved of his command - which is probably. 

"The General made his headquarters with the 16th until he got his ready in the “Mason” house nearby. He likes the 16th and both the officers and men will fare better under him than under Col. Blunt. I am heartily glad of the change.

“… I am very well - never felt better or ate heartily in my life. I eschew turkey, chicken, sauces, etc, and confine myself to beef, pork, oysters when I can get them, bread, potatoes, onions butter and cheese with tea and coffee, not all at one meal of course. I mean my food shall be plain, well cooked and nutritious. But I will not encourage any fancy appetite I have not drank a quart of liquor since I left Brattleboro in fact only now and there I last it, about the same as at home. I weigh 162 pounds and my muscular strength seems almost twice as great as it used to.

 “…I get my washing done, after a fashion, by a family of Negroes close by camp. It cost me about 62 cents per dozen, and without ironing. As soon as my clothing is returned by my servant hang them up on a line across my tent over the stove when they remain until they are wanted to wear.

 “…  Since my last letter two of the sick in the hospital have died both of typhoid fever. … Those who come from the high hill towns do not acclimate as well as those from the river and valley towns. The dampness in the night here is not unlike the fogs &tc., at home.

 “Give my love to mother and the usual for to our dear children, and likewise me always Loving husband. ~ Lt. Col. Charles Cummings, Sixteenth Regiment, Letter No. 8 or 9,  December 10, 1862. VHS. 

"December 10. ... The General has gone to on a visit with some of his friends. Col. Stoughton is his brother, from the Vermont Fourth Regiment. They are having a high time."  ~ Diary of Oliver A. Browne, Co. K, 15th Regiment.



[George E. Davis, Halifax, VT, age 21,  Pvt, Co. F, 16th VT INF, died of disease 12/10/62.]

Tuesday, December 9, 1862. Typhoid fever takes two.

"Dear Sister –I beleive I have not written you for a number of days so will do so to day. ... I sent the pipe I had whittled out to father, I’m going to make Alfred one if I get time. Az recd a box from home the other day. There was a bag of pickles in it which had leaked all over the rest of the stuff & nearly spoiled it.

"The 13th 14th & 15th Regts have got back. They went over near the Bull Run battlefield. Our Regt & the 12th did all the picketing while they were gone.

"Stoughton arrived here yesterday to take command of this Brigade. I dont think any body would have felt bad if he had gone somewhere else....

"I wish you could look into our house & see how comfortably we live. I think you would not worry much about us while we remain here. ...

"Our Regt lost a man last night, [ ] Moore of Co. F.* there is another** from the same Co. that Geo. says will not live until tomorrow morning.

"I dont see why I cant get letters in two days as I used to last winter. Now I hardly ever get your letters that are written sunday until thursday or friday.

"... There is nothing new to write but I thought you might wish to hear from us so I have written. George is going to write so I will close." ~ Joseph Spafford, 1st Lieutenant, Company E, Sixteenth Regiment, Letter, December 9, 1862, UVM

[* Hiland B. Moore, Dover, VT, age 17,  PVT, Co. F, 16th VT INF,  died 12/8/62 (typhoid fever), Alexandria, Va]

[** Beginning with Hiland Moore on December 8, 5 members of Company F died of disease by year end; there were only 2 deaths in the other 9 companies.]

"My Darling Wife,
"I have moved into my new hut & am all ready for you, so I reckon you had better come. ... 
"Yr husband
"Let me know in season if you come. I have no money to send you" ~  ~ Col. Wheelock G. Veazey, Sixteenth Regiment, Letter to Julia, December 9, 1862. UVM Center for Digital Initiatives