Camp Deas, near Youngs Mills,
9th Nov., 1861.
My dear Wife:
It
is Saturday night, it is raining and the wind getting around to the north
admonishes us that it is going to be cold.
We began yesterday to cut logs to build huts for our winter quarters,
and as we have no tools but axes and have to split out slabs to cover our huts,
to make doors, etc., I cannot hope to be in a house before Christmas, at which
time I should like to have the pleasure of yourself and the children at
Christmas dinner, but the state of roads, the roughness of the country, and the
proximity of the enemy would not justify the trip for such a dinner as a
soldier would serve on his tinware.
I
am anticipating great comfort and luxury upon the receipt of the carpet and the
stove and have no doubt I will get on first rate. I am very thankful that military ambition nor
worldly glory led me into this position.
Had it, I would have been cured, tho I confess the hardships of the
campaign have not equalled my anticipation, for I had counted the cost and
prepared myself for greater, and my chief complaint has always been the
inefficiency of my superiors and the flagrant neglect on their part of the
comforts and health of the troops under their charge. In this connection, I have sorrowfully to
record the death of one of my own men, Joiner, at Biglows Hospital, of Typhoid
fever on the 4th inst., the first I have lost, and he a victim to the necessity
of sleeping on damp ground without straw or plant to protect him. I have some ten now in Hospital, none
seriously ill and all but one in Williamsburg, where I think they will be
attended to. They are sent when at all
seriously sick to Hospital 20 miles from our camp, and I have been trying for
three weeks to get to see them, without success. I shall try and get up next week. Tom Minnow is a perfect lightwood knot, keeps
well and fattens all the time.
The
continual changes of position of our camp and the bad arrangement of the camp
with the cold weather, has broken in upon our prayer meetings for some time
past, but as soon as we get our winter quarters completed I shall resume them,
and want to adopt some plan to make the longer winter nights pass profitably to
my men. To that end, I want to have a
select library of standard attractive reading for them, which will interest and
at the same time improve them. I will
get them to build a house about 25 feet square for a chapel and sitting and
reading room, in which I will have a
stove to make it comfortable, so that after supper and a smoke, at sunset we
can meet and have prayer meetings and then reading, etc., and thus if not
disturbed by the enemy or ordered somewhere else, spending the evening more profitably than it is generally spent in
camp, but we know not what a day may bring forth, so I plan with no
disappointment if some order breaks in upon all my plans.
The
probability of my resigning having gotten to my men, they protest and I cannot
think of leaving them to the mercies of others, and for the present give it
up. They with all honest patriotic
persons who have enlisted have been so imposed upon by the officers put over
them that I do not think they ought to reenlist at the expiration of their
year, and I have made up my mind to let some of the “stay at homes” take my
place unless circumstances at the time make it my duty, which I must discharge,
but I still hope the year to 14th May, 1862, may find us at the end of the war
and peace restored, with our rights
established and the glory of God shining brighter and brighter to the perfect
day.
I
wish you would ask Bro. David to have me a military vest made at Wm. Ira
Smith’s of Crenshaw grey cloth, and send it down by Lieut. Willis, who will
come down Monday week, 18th November, with whatever else you have to
send. If you have time, have a
daguerreotype taken of yourself and the children and send that also, that I may
see you all without a leave of absence.
Kiss the dear children for father and tell them to be very good and obey
mother. Love to all friends, pray for
me.
Yours
very affectionately,
Jno.
S. Walker
Miss
Sue Archer _______ is down here 6 miles below this and near Newport News. She is a spy in our cause, romantic and
heroic. She has made the acquaintance of
Yankee Officers down there and will probably be useful. Keep dark.
Yours,
J.S.W.
At a guess, the woman referenced
by J.S.W. in his post script is ‘Sue Archer Tally’, a writer and a friend of
Edgar Allen Poe who was arrested during the war for being a Confederate spy,
though later released.
No comments:
Post a Comment