1863 April 2: “Our troops here made a dash over the head of the lake a few days since and were successful in capturing the town of” Ponchatoula

It rather looks like Jerry has written 1862 instead of 1863 on this letter, but we know from what he talks about that it is 1863.  On March 21, 1863, General Nathaniel P. Banks sent the 6th Michigan Infantry to destroy a bridge at Ponchatoula,¹ Louisiana, and they spent several days getting there and sacking the town before burning a railroad bridge near Ponchatuala on March 25.  Although Jerry mentions that “our troops” captured “a large amount of rebel cotten [sic] and army stores,” according to historian John D. Winters in his book The Civil War in Louisiana, Colonel Thomas S. Clark of the 6th Michigan was “disappointed to find no cotton in Ponchatoula.”  He did gather all the mules, wagons, turpentine and resin, along with the plunder from the village, and loaded it aboard waiting schooners.²

The original letter is in the Jerry E. Flint Papers (River Falls Mss BN) at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, University Archives and Area Research Center.

Camp Parapet La.
Apr. 2^nd 1863

My Dear Mother ;

                                      I feel a little lonesome to night — so I have made up my mind to have a short chat with you.  I presume that it will not be very interesting, for I have not the faculty of enjoying this silent mode of communication well enough to arouse in me the spirit of conversation.  I can however let you know that I am at present in very good health, and trying still to do my duty faithfully as a soldier.

The prospect of crushing this rebellion sometimes looks dark and it seems as though we made but little progress.  Still I am not yet willing to doubt our final success.  If our people at the north were half as united against the rebels as they are against us, I should be out of this hot southern climate in less than six months.

As far as I am concerned I have stood this climate uncommonly well, and but for the Fever and Ague which has a strong hold of my system I would be as well as ever in my life.  I have a spell of this once in about three weeks.  My chills are not very hard but the fevers are awful.  They make me almost crazy.  The doctor has given me a solution of Arsenic and some thing else I don’t know what.  I have taken so much quinine that it don’t have much effect.

I was very glad to hear that you had taken a trip to Dover.  I have no doubt you had a splendid visit with Aunt Persis.  I would like to hear from Berridge and Bunyan.  I hope they have enlisted.

Our troops here made a dash over the head of the lake a few days since and were successful in capturing the town of Ponchitowla [sic]¹ and a large amount of rebel cotten [sic] and army stores.  We hear rumors that Gen. Butler [Benjamin F. Butler] is to be sent again to this department.  I hope it is true as do all of his old troops.  With him would come confidence and a new and energetic spirit to the army here.  When he issues an order the rebels in New Orleans know that it must be obeyed.  As for Banks they care no more for him than they do for a street urchin.

I would send you some money but if I had it but we have not been paid off for nearly four months so that of course I am strapped.  I shall expect a letter from Phineas by the next steamer.

Do you ever hear anything from Whitefield.  I feel anxious to know where he is, though I suppose that he cares little whether we know anything of him or not.  Give my love to all the folks.

Yours Truly,

P.S.  I forgot to tell you that six of us had built us a small shantie [sic] 10×12 and are now living in it.  It is much more comfortable than tents.

1.  Ponchatoula is located half way between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Jerry seems to be spelling it phonetically.
2.  The Civil War in Louisiana, by John D. Winters, [Baton Rouge]: Louisiana State University Press, 1963. The incident at Pontchatoula is described on pages 219-20. This book is available in the UWRF Library (E 565 .W54).

Jerry Flint letter of April 2, 1863, from the Jerry E. Flint Paper (River Falls Mss BN) at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls University Archives & Area Research Center

 

1863 January 7: Rounding Up Deserters in Pierce County

The following article appeared in the January 7, 1863, issue of The Prescott Journal.

MARTIAL LAW IN PIERCE COUNTY !

Interesting and Important Facts Relating thereto!

A   “B I G  T H I N G”   (O N   O N E   S I D E!)

The subject of summary arrests by military authority is just now engaging the thoughtful attention of all reflecting men.  It is seriously feared by man, that by means of these arrests, the great bulwark of personal freedoms is broken down, and constitutional liberty itself imperilled.

As the public mind is so alive to this subject, we feel it our duty as a journalist, to spare no pains or expense in laying before our readers a full and authentic account of the only attempt at military arrest in this county.

On the morning of Friday, Dec. 5th, 1862, being in the peaceful village of River Falls, we were early summoned to repair to the residence of our friend, JOHN L. DALE, Esq.  As we supposed John to be at Camp Randall, quietly dispensing Beer and Bolognas to the soldier boys, we were surprised at the summons, but proceeded to obey it.  There was an air of mystery and secrecy about the dwelling.  The children were hushed and awe-struck.  The cat was shut down [the] cellar.  The dog had been killed, last the uncommon wagging of his tail should betray something unusual.

John, in the gravest manner, then proceeded to inform us that he had been appointed DEPUTY PROVOST MARSHAL, and his business was to arrest Keister, Davis, and Houston, three deserters from the 30th.¹  This to us

 “Impart in dreadful secrecy he did,”

with bated breath, and many an injunction to keep still, as secrecy was necessary to success.  Time wore on, and to ensure the safe keeping of the secret, it was told to the most of the people of River Falls and vicinity.  Strange as it may seem, the ex-soldiers, Keister and Davis, hearing of the presence of the August Provost Marshal, “skedaddled,” or in plainer terms, “cut and run,” so that on the morning of Sunday, Dec. 14, 1862, no one was left but Houston, a young lad who should never have enlisted.  But the law was inoxorable, and the Marshal must seize this boy’s puny form.

On the Sunday spoken of, arrayed in a huge military overcoat, seated in a chariot drawn by a gay and festive “boss” and his memorable mule, armed with his commission, his historic “gourd-stick,” and three plugs of tobacco, JOHN L. DALE, Esq., Deputy Provost Marshal, proceeded sternly forth, determined to “do or die.”

The chariot was driven by a brother of the young man who was to be captured.  As it drew near the place of destination, JOHN grew severely solemn and gloomily grand.  He felt the awful responsibility resting on him.  Greater than Courts, or Judge, or Jury, he was the embodiment of the autocratic War Making Power.  He was going to make a “Summary Arrest.”

As the chariot halted, the ex-soldier perceived the huge form of the Marshal, darted out of the door and precipitately fled.  The Marshal followed.  “Go it Bill,” shouted the brother of the fleeing fugitive.  “Go it JOHN,” shouted a patriotic observer of the race.  Both strained every move.  Liberty impelled the one; Honor, Duty, Law, the other.  Alas!  JOHN had the most Bottom, but the boy the most speed.  Slowly, but surely, the youth gained on his bulky pursuer, until at last the Marshall gave over the chase, sadly returned to the chariot, seriously diminished his stock of tobacco, plunged the “gourd stick” into the affrighted mule, and left for Sparta, to assist in nominating McIndoe.²  JOHN being a personal friend of ours, our artist flattered him as much as possible in our engraving, depicting him after a race of about twenty rods, when he was nearest to the fleeing youth.

Thus endeth the history of the first attempt at arrest by a Deputy Provost Marshal in Pierce County.  We see nothing in it to alarm the friends of Constitutional Liberty.

1.  Leander W. Davis and Hezekiah F. Keister, both from Diamond Bluff, deserted from Company F of the 30th Wisconsin Infantry (Salomon Tigers) on November 2, 1865, according to a December 7, 1862, letter published in The Prescott Journal on December 17.  Both are listed in the official roster as mustering out on September 20, 1865, so they must have been found and returned. A James S. Huston, from Eau Claire, was in Company I of the 30th Infantry, but as a sergeant he seems an unlikely deserter. Perhaps “Houston” was the “young lad who should never have enlisted” and when they caught up with him they didn’t make him go back.
2.  Walter D. McIndoe.

1863 January 1: May “your pigs and chickens grow fat, your children fatter”

Various New Year pieces from The Polk County Press.

— We understand there is to be a Ball at the Sawyer House, in Stillwater, on New Years Eve.  The fact that our friend Whitcher is getting up the party is recommendation enough.  We hope to be able to attend.—Sam Fifield in the December 20, 1862, Polk County Press.

Happy New Year.

The POLK COUNTY PRESS, wishes all its readers that felicitous state of existence set forth in the heading to this article.  May prosperity attend your undertakings—health reign upon your borders—your pigs and chickens grow fat, your children fatter ;  above all may your consciences be easy.  To insure this desirable state, one thing is neccessary [sic] to wit: pay for your paper !  Stir up your neighbor next door to take it, and PAY FOR IT !  Thus shall you be happy, and go to bed on the first night of a new year, with a devout heart, thanking God that you live in a Christian land !

Oh !  the joys, and sorrows, which ’63 has in store for each of us.  How wise a provision of Providence, that the future is veiled from our sight !

Let us endeavor to rely upon that Providence, taking good heed to be at peace with mankind, and in order successfully to accomplish this SUPPORT YOUR COUNTY PAPER !—The Polk County Press., December 27, 1862.

1862 December 24: As the Year 1862 Draws to a Close: “the prospect of whipping the traitors, and the possibility of a speedy peace”

From the editor of The Prescott Journal, on the front page of the December 24, 1862, issue.

REVERIES.

The Past and the Future.

As the year eighteen hundred and sixty-two draws to a close, we like to think of this dear old earth of ours, when Eve and Adam loved and sinned and suffered, and when their sons and daughters occasionally followed in their footprints, in and out of Eden, as a kind old Lady whose merriest and sweetest thought are on birds and flowers.

Nature, it seems, does not fret herself about our little vexed mortalities.  For us she does not even wrinkle her azure brow—the infinitely sweet sky looks down tranquilly upon the troubled features of her waking or sleeping children.  The misery caused by this wicked war, and the prospect of whipping the traitors, and the possibility of a speedy peace, leave no trace on the rosy cast of the morning sky, however they rise like fog from the face of the daily papers.  These things are born perhaps of the weather, and the good old mother earth takes no notice of them.—The omnipotent weathercock, in shine or shadow, is omnicient [sic] on the steeple; while mother earth laughs over the death-bed of men and the funeral train of nations.

As this is the last month in this year we may wisely say that life is a way, a journey, a pilgrimage, and all mortals are pilgrims.—To-day the wandering Yankee, who in our nineteenth century may be a peddler with a knapsack on his back, dealing out grape and cannister [sic] to the rebels, while we stand by the wayside and road upon the outworn face of some human image, an old man, with a child’s dreaming eyes resting under the snow-veil of his bosom, the last week in the year: “I am the Past—weep!”  But there seems a soul blossoming into a smile on the flushed lips of the dreaming child, dreaming in sleep, and a whisper grows into the heart of the pilgrim: “I am the Future—smile!”  Then the image of the old man and the dreaming child vanishes, and there is a lonely heart beating in the solitude, and it whispers, “Regret not, the old year takes the mortal’s memory, but the new gives the Union hope.”

All that inhabit this old earth are that I’ll grim.  Humanity is the homeless one, ever on the threshold, but never passing over it.

We all see the last day in each year as time rolls round.  We see the image of the old man with the child nestlde [sic] in the snow of his dead bosom, asleep.  We all read the traceries of the wrinkled face, “I am the Past—weep!” and translate the dreamer’s soul, “I am the Future—smile!”  And so on the great highway of the world we pass the old life of the dead Time, and begin the new life of the living Time—always the Present lighted with the Future.

Are there tolling bells—are there funeral trains—are there open graves, when we come to the end of the year?  The year closing is the type of a great death.  The air is full of glittering bayonets and tolling bells.  The darkness is thronged with funeral trains of the vanished armies.

Death bears the angel Lite in his arms asleep—the Memory of the old year and the Hope of the new; and Memory and Hope are the figures that make the pilgrim linger at the end of the year.  He pauses, and lingers, and listens—he looks before and after and pines for peace;—he asks stern questions, but the angels will not answer, and the grave only echoes them.  Behind him is the way he has come; before him is the way his footsteps were going.  He bends down and kisses the dreaming child, and whispers into his ear, and the child seems waking from its sleeping dream, and smiling.  And this is all; but this is the assurance: “I am the Future—smile!”

Then the restless world goes on, tolling, rejoicing, sorrowing.  And sometimes looking back, we see periods in our life transfigured in some holy light—

The light that never was on sea or shore—
The consecration and the poet’s dream.

And the dreaming image has a halo about its brow, and is a divine form of immortal youth and glory.  There are golden periods in our lives, and all our dusty paths lead backward to them; and from them the distances are marked upon our brows and hearts; they are crowned with the transfigured Past.

But when we have passed the end of the year, with its image of old age and weariness and decay, the dreaming child that we left sleeping and smiling in the snow of the old man’s bosom, steals from his arms and leaps before us, and presently we see far off where the sun touches some height whence the breath of morning brings us the souls of divine flowers.  The true golden object of our lives and the dreaming child gleaming with a glory and crowned with a sunwreath, and lifted with wings, smiles from the future Time that makes the better years.

Ah, the better years!  We pass the end of the year of the mortal ebb and flow of time.  We let the dead past bury its dead.  We put our own dead, beautiful and loved, in the grave, and still we move on and trust the smile, and forget the tears.

1862 December 24: War and Women’s Rights

The following article appeared in the December 24, 1862, issue of The Prescott Journal.

WOMAN’S RIGHTS.

There is great complaint in all the large cities in relation to the “starvation prices” paid for work done by females, and especially for sewing on army clothing.  It would seem that contractors who are making fortunes by selling shoddy clothing to the Government, and thus cheating the poor soldiers, ought to be satisfied to pay the soldier’s wives a reasonable compensation for making the clothing.  There are causes for the surplus female labor which is now crowding for employment.  In the first place there are the wives and daughters of thousands of soldiers who are now for the first time in their lives thrown upon their own resources mostly for their support, and seek for employment in sewing, to eke out the means of living.  In the next place the stoppage of the cotton mills has deprived a very large number of females of their accustomed labor, and compelled them to seek employment in sewing.—And in the third place the introduction of sewing machines has brought the power of labor saving machinery into direct competition with this branch of labor, at a time when from the causes first mentioned there are unusual difficulties in the way of an ordinary and natural adjustment of the supply of labor in this department of industry to the demand for it.  Time will remedy the difficulty ;  but in the meantime there must be great suffering among those poor women who are dependent upon their own labor alone, and can find no other employment but sewing.  Few, except the parties immediately interested, have probably been aware of the extremely low prices which sewing women are paid.  [paragraph break added]

Anna E. Dickinson, from the Library of Congress (see footnote 1)

Miss Anna Dickinson¹ of Philadelphia, has made a strong and eloquent appeal to the public sympathy in their behalf, and made some astounding statements in relation to the wages for which they are compelled by necessity to work.  She says a man can go from one branch of business to another or carve out a new way for himself, and if he succeeds the world is ready to applaud ;  but there is hardly any place where the unmarried woman can go.  Every position which she can fill there are hundreds of applicants for.  In New York City forty thousand girls work fifteen hours a day to earn from twelve to thirty cents.  She said she knew girls in her own city who are making army shirts and drawers for two cents apiece, and pants and coats at from seven to twenty cents each.  They are paid thirty seven and one-half cents for making sack coats which would take two days of ten hours each to make.  In some places girls have to work their eighteen hours a day, eating as they worked, and almost going without sleeping.

Another reason why the prices are kept down is that the wealthy will not pay a living price for the article.

We are glad to see that the newspapers are giving utterance to the just complaints of the sufferers from this system of “starvation prices.”  It is an evil for which a remedy must be found, and a publication of the facts that the public attention may be aroused to it, will undoubtedly lead to its correction.

1.  Anna Elizabeth Dickinson (1842-1932) was an orator, lecturer, teacher, and advocate for abolition and women’s suffrage. In 1862, she had given a series of lectures, sponsored by the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, that helped foment the abolitionist movement in that state. During the 1863 elections, she will speak in support of the several Republican candidates and for the Radical Republicans’ anti-slavery platform. In 1864, she will receive a standing ovation for a speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
The photograph of Dickinson, taken sometime between 1855 and 1865, is from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

1862 December 24: The Week’s Small Articles

Following are the small articles from The Prescott Journal of December 24, 1862.  There is only one page extant of The Polk County Press for the last week in December 1862, but it does not have local news or small articles on it.

— The official report of the battle of Fredricksburg [sic] almost 1,400 killed, 8,000 wounded and 800 prisoners.  A Richmond dispatch estimates the rebel loss at 2,500.

— Late news shows that there is to be no changing in the Cabinet.

— We are indebted to W. H. WINCHESTER¹ of the 4th regiment, for New Orleans papers, also to Mrs. Goss of this city, for the same.

— Rev. A. B. GREEN, Chaplain of the 30th in a recent letter says ; “I saw at dinner Provost Marshall McINDOE.  He is a fine, live, honest man.  They say he is for war or rebel submission.”

— L. E. TEALE² of this city was killed in the late battle in Arkansas.

— THE SOLDIERS.—The Green Bay Advocate says :  “We have alluded to the fine appearance of Co. A, 30th Reg., Capt. Harriman [Samuel Harriman].  They have been here now two or three weeks, and we can speak with as much certainty of their conduct as their appearance physically.  We do not believe that a better company of men has been enlisted in the State.  They are quiet, temperate, regular and interested attendants upon march services, and are really an honor to the locality from which they came.  The citizens of this city and Fort Howard will dislike to part with them when the time comes for them to go.

BROWN CO. DRAFTED MEN.—Sheriff “Whitney returned from Milwaukee (Camp Washburn) on Tuesday evening, where he had been to escort the drafted men from this Co.  He informs us that the men from Brown Co. were generally complimented as the best drilled and best behaved drafted men that had yet gone into Camp.

As Serg’t Merton Herrick and Corp. R. S. Andrews³ were untiring in their efforts to instruct these men in their drill, of course a large share of the credit is due these efficient officers.—Green Bay Advocate.

1.  William H. Winchester, from River Falls. On August 22, 1863, Winchester will be appointed the Chief Bugler for the Regiment.
2.  Lindsey E. Teal, without the final “e,” was from Saint Croix Falls, both things according to the official roster of Company A, 20th Wisconsin Infantry. He was killed in action on December 7, 1862, at Prairie Grove, Arkansas.
3.  Merton Herrick, from Hammond, was a sergeant in Company A of the 30th Wisconsin Infantry at this time. He will be promoted to 1st sergeant, and in February 1865 to 2nd lieutenant of Co. K, 48th Wisconsin Infantry.
Reuben S. Andrews, from Trimbelle, was a corporal at this time. He will be promoted to sergeant, and in February 1865 to 2nd lieutenant of Company G, 50th Wisconsin Infantry.

1862 December 24: Secretary of State Charles Sumner

If you have seen the movie “Lincoln,” you will know one of the key players was Secretary of State Charles Sumner.  But he was not in President Abraham Lincoln’s first cabinet; his first secretary of state was William H. Seward.  Here we have several articles, all from the December 24, 1862, issue of The Prescott Journal, discussing whether or not Seward is out and Sumner is in.

— The news from Washington is startling—Secretary Seward has resigned—Charles Sumner has been tendered the portfolio of the State Department, and the indications are of a general reconstruction of the Cabinet.  Such are the reports, and if facts, we accept them as the earnests of a vigorous war policy, and the guarantees of a speedy suppression of the rebellion.—St. Paul Press.

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CABINET.

Resignation of Secretary Seward.

CHARLES SUMNER SECRETARY OF STATE.

NEW YORK, Dec. 20.

The Washington Star of yesterday evening says a caucus of Republican Senators was held on the 16th, and a resolution offered requsting [sic] the President to dispense with the services of Seward was discussed.  The result was sixteen in favor against thirteen.  On the 17th another cacus [sic] adopted a substitute recommending the President to partiaally [sic] remodel his Cabinet, which was unanimously agreed to.  The conservatives believed it would be regarded as a general injunction to the whole Cabinet to resign.  On being informed of the act the Secretary and also the Assistant Secretary of State,¹ sent in their resignations requesting their immediate acceptance.  The Post’s Washington correspondent says :  It is rumored this afternoon that the entire Cabinet will retire, leaving the President free to construct a new Cabinet.  This is probally [sic] incorrect, but it is not all improbably that Messers. Blair² and Bates [Edward Bates] have tendered their resignations.  One of the shrewdest politicians in Congress this morning expressed the hope that the President would accept the resignation of every man, civil or military, who shall offer it, with one solitary exception, and that man should be M. Chase [Salmon P. Chase].  He would not accept Chase’s resignation in any contigency [sic] for the sake of the nation.

A gentleman brings us the report that Charles Sumner has been tendered the port-folio of State.  Mr. Sumner is perhaps, of all our statesmen, the most conversant with foreign affairs.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19.

The Star of to day says that Seward has resigned.

NO CHANGE IN THE CABINET.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22.

The President has acknowledged the reception of the resignations of the Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, and the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Chase, and has informed them after due deliberation he has come to the conclusion the acceptances of their resignations would be incompatible with the public welfare.  The President has therefore requested both to resume their respective functions.

They have resumed their places at heads of their respective departments.

1.  William H. Seward’s son, Frederick W. Seward, was the Assistant Secretary of State in charge of consular service, but he did not resign and served in this position until 1869.
2.  Montgomery Blair (1813-1883) was Lincoln’s Postmaster General. He was despised by the Radical Republicans in Congress, and by most of the rest of Lincoln’s cabinet. He was an opponent of emancipation. He will not resign until September 1864.

1862 December 24: Losses at the Battle of Fredericksburg

This article on the Battle of Fredericksburg is from The Prescott Journal of December 24, 1862.

Account of the late Battle.

THE CARNAGE AWFUL.

New York, Dec. 17.

The correspondent of the Tribune thus describes the carnage of Saturday:

It is not using too strong an expression to say that in this battle we were butchered.  The loss of the enemy in comparison with our own must have been insignificant.  More than half the division of Gen. French¹ were placed hors dn [sic:]² combat, before they had fired a shot.

Having orders to withhold their fire, charge bayonets and rush upon the entrenchments, they anticipated no obstacles until they should meet in hand to hand fight on the crest the first range of hills.

But how little they knew the foe they had to deal with!  Lying close upon the soft earth behind a low stone wall and half destroyed fence, which we had not taken into our calculations as obstacles, the enemy watched the approach of French until every man in line of battle came under aim of the best sharpshooter in the rebel army.

In an instant almost before the fence itself was discovered to be an obstacle, the smoke streamed above the fence and wall, and the moment the first volley was fired, sixty pieces of artillery charged with grape and canister sent their infernal contents straight through our advancing lines.  Ranking them in front and upon both flanks.

Destruction so terrible never before has been seen during the war.  French sent into the battle with 7,000 men.  Two days after the fight only 1,000 men had reported to him.

The entire loss of the corps of Couch [Darius N. Couch] consisting of the Divisions of Howard [Oliver O. Howard], French and Hancock [Winfield Scott Hancock], and which on the morning of the battle, contained forty regiments, old and new.  Amounting to at least 20,000 men, is now 10,000.  I think the official reports will not vary from this estimate more than 500 over or under.

The losses in Reynold’s corps of Franklin’s [William B. Franklin] grand division, which were at first supposed to be but 2,000 are now considered by some of Franklin’s staff officers to be nearly 4,000.

SEMI OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF THE LOSSES.³

The following based upon official reports as far as made and upon estimates of those who have the est facilities for judging, is as near correct as can be obtained up to this time:

RIGHT GRAND DIVISION (SUMNER’S [Edwin V. Sumner].)

Second Corps. (Couch’s.)—Howard’s division, 980; Hancock’s division, 3,300; French’s division, 1,900.
Ninth Corps. (Wilcox [sic]³.)—Stugis’ [Samuel D. Sturgis] division, 925; Getty’s⁵ division, 400; Total 7,505.

CENTRE GRAND DIVISION (HOOKERS [Joseph Hooker])

Fifth Corps. (Butterfield’s⁶) Humphry’s [sic]⁷ division, 1,500; Graffith’s [sic]⁸ division, 1,300; Sykes⁹ division, 150; Total 2,950.

LEFT GRAND DIVISION (FRANKLIN’S)

First Corps. (Reynolds¹⁰)—Gibbon’s [John Gibbon] division, 900; Mead’s [George G. Meade] division, 1,800; Doubleday’s¹¹ division, 150; Total, 5,850.
Sixth Corps. (Smith’s [William F. Smith) 200.

RECAPULATION.

Total Right Grand Division      7,055
Total Centre Grand Division    2,950
Total Left Grand Division         3,050
Aggregate losses                        13,055

It is believed that these figures will fall under rather than exceed official reports.

1. William Henry French (1815-1881) was a career military officer, a graduate of West Point and an aide-de-camp to several generals in the Mexican War. During the Seminole War, French argued with Stonewall Jackson and the two filed numerous charges against each other. French co-authored Instruction for Field Artillery, published in 1860, along with William F. Barry and Henry J. Hunt. In the Peninsula Campaign of the Civil War, he was engaged at the battles of Yorktown, Seven Pines, Oak Grove, Gaines’ Mill, Garnett’s & Golding’s Farm, Savage’s Station, Glendale, and Malvern Hill, and he received praise in official reports for his actions and leadership. French commanded the 3rd Division of the II Corps at the Battle of Antietam, making the first attack on the Confederate Division in the Sunken Road. He had just been promoted to major general in November, 1862 and led his division in the battle of Fredericksburg. He will also lead his division at the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, but his military reputation will be ruined during the Mine Run Campaign in November 1863 when Major General George G. Meade claimed that French’s corps moved too slowly to exploit a potential advantage over General Robert E. Lee.
2.  Hors du combat is a French term meaning, in this case, that the soldiers in General French’s command were unable to participate in the action, incapable of performing their military function. It becomes obvious as the article goes on that the reason for this was that they were wounded or killed.
3.  For a better listing of what is called the “order of battle” for Fredericksburg, see Wikipedia’s page “Fredericksburg Union order of battle.” It does not, however include the casualties for each division and corps.
4.  Orlando Bolivar Willcox (1823-1907), a graduate of West Point and career military officer.
5.  George Washington Getty (1819-1901), a graduate of West Point and career military officer most noted for his role as a division commander in the Army of the Potomac during the final full year of the Civil War.
6.  Daniel Adams Butterfield (1831-1901), who had little military background beyond part-time militia activities, became a brigadier general in five months of joining the military. He is credited with the composing “Taps,” probably the most famous bugle call ever written. Butterfield had just became commander of the V Corps for the Battle of Fredericksburg. His corps was one of those assaulting through the city and up against murderous fire from Marye’s Heights.
7.  Andrew Atkinson Humphreys (1810-1883), a graduate of West Point and career military officer and a civil engineer in the Army. At the Battle of Fredericksburg, his division achieved the farthest advance against fierce Confederate fire from Marye’s Heights. An officer with little combat experience, he inspired his troops with his personal bravery.
8.  Charles Griffin (1825-1867), a graduate of West Point and career military officer, his leadership abilities brought him steady promotion. Assigned command of a division in the V Corps, he served at the Battle of Fredericksburg and during the Chancellorsville Campaign.
9.  George Sykes (1822-1880), a graduate of West Point and career military officer.
10.  John Fulton Reynolds (1820-1863), a graduate of West Point, a career military office, and by the Civil War one of the Union Army’s most respected senior commanders. He will be killed early in the Battle of Gettysburg.
11.  Abner Doubleday (1819-1893), a graduate of West Point and a career military officer, he He fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter, the opening battle of the war. At the Battle of Fredericksburg, and the 6th and 7th Wisconsin Infantries, part of the 4th Brigade, were in Doubleday’s First Division. Doubleday will play a pivotal role in the early fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg. After the War, Doubleday obtained a patent on the cable car railway that still runs in San Francisco.

1862 December 24: A Poet in the Saint Croix Guards

A poem from the December 24, 1862, issue of The Prescott Journal, written by “File Left” of the Saint Croix Guards—Company A of the 30th Wisconsin Infantry.  The poem is a thank-you to the ladies of Fort Howard, where, you may remember, Company A was stationed while helping with the draft.

 Co. A. of the 30th, has a poet of no mean ability, as the following articles which we clip from the Green Bay Advocate, show :

LINES,

Very respectfully dedicated to Mrs. M. CAMM, and others of the ladies of Fort Howard, for their kindness and hospitality to the soldiers of Co. A. 30th Wis. Vols.

When far away a little band
Shall with their brother comrades stand
Against our foes in strong array,
Our hearts will turn to that fair land
Where Green Bay’s waters wash the strand;
Our homage there we’ll pay.

To woman fair—the soldier’s friend,
We’ll kindly, hearty greetings send,
And bless them all each day.
They bring to the wandering soldier boy
Sweet thoughts of home, without alloy,
And brightens all his way.

Aye, Heaven be with you each and all,
And great, unnumbered blessings fall
On maidens fair and matron’s silvered head;
May those you love, from War’s red hand,
Be safe returned to native land,
When War’s dark clouds have fled.

FILE LEFT.

Fort Howard, Nov. 30         Co. A. 30th Wis.

1862 December 26: We “are bound to have a big fight at Port Hudson”

The day after Christmas Jerry Flint writes to his brother Phineas in River Falls.  As he says at the end, he wrote this “in an ugly shape,” by which he means his handwriting is worse than usual!  The original letter is in the Jerry E. Flint Papers (River Falls Mss BN) at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, University Archives and Area Research Center.

Camp Parapet, La.
December 26^th 1862

Dear Brother;

                        Re’cd your letter of Nov. 28^th yesterday for which I am very thankful.  It is the first from you since your sickness.  I am glad that you are getting along so well, but don’t deceive yourself and join your company too quick.  I suppose that by this time or very soon at least your regiment will be ordered to the seat of war and you will see then that you knew nothing of hard duty yet.  Should you be sick in the army you will get no such care as you did this time.  If your regiment should be ordered to Vicksburg, as I hear they sure expect to be, it is possible that we may run against one another.

You are well aware by this I suppose that Gen. Banks [Nathaniel P. Banks] landed with his forces at New Orleans and that he has also superseded Gen. Butler [Benjamin F. Butler] in the Command of this Department.  He has already sent 20 thousand men to Baton Rouge, and I suppose they are to assist in opening the river.  Our regiment has gone with the rest, but we are still here in command of the batterry [sic].  We expect to join the rest soon.

They are bound to have a big fight at Port Hudson 15 miles above Baton Rouge.  The rebels have strong fortifications and a large number of troops at that place.  I think we shall join them before they march on that place as the Col. will be anxious to have his regiment full.  Col. Paine [Eleazer A. Paine] is acting Brig. Gen. but the 4th is in his brigade.  Although I should rather like to be with the Reg., I must say that it would not hurt my feelings much to remain where we are all winter.  Here our duties are very easy.  We can get our pay and mails regularly and yes comparatively good rations.  But on the march it is Hard Bread and coffee, thanking the fates if you get that.

We are very sorry that Gen. Butler has left us, not but that Banks may be an able commander but he is not to the old soldiers here what Ole Ben was.  We started out with him, was with him on a barren island and came with him to New Orleens [sic].  At no time did he forget his solders but would always see that they got their rights.  He was to the soldiers of this Department what McClellan [George B. McClellan] was to the Army of the Potomac.  But I suppose it is all right and I have but they will give the old chief as good a position if not better than he had before.

We received news by yesterday mail of the re-crossing of the Rhappahannock [sic] by Burnside [Ambrose E. Burnside].  This indeed makes it look dark.  It seems as if our army of the Potomac was bound to be always be whipped.  We have always been successful in the West.  I believe we shall be this time, but unless Richmond can be taken and that heavy army of rebels defeated, our prospects are bettered but very little.  We must take their capital, disperse their congress and never let them assemble, then they cannot work with any success against us.  [paragraph break added]

I am glad you find so good a home at Wales’.¹  I always liked him fully.  I wonder if he remembers that last load of hay on the bogs or the desperate time we had in trying to massacre a skunk.  Or I should say what a time he had.  I didn’t have anything to do with it.  No sir, I ran.

While you are having the storms and frost of winter we are having weather as pleasant as May.  The boys to day are laying around in the shade without any coats and shirt coullars [sic] unbuttened [sic].  We have very little rain and occasionally a frost.

I send Mother a little money occasionally as I have it.  Helen writes me that clothing is very high.  It will be payday again very soon and I hope we shall get our regular cash.

Tender my respects to Mr Wales and family.

I received a letter yesterday from Rossie and one from Ed.  I will write to them to night or to morrow.  I have written this in an ugly shape and I do not know as you can get through it.  But I don’t feel very well, guess I’ll have to quit.      Write Soon, Jerry

[P.S.]  The boys are all very well.  Henry has the Ague some.

1.  Possibly Samuel Wales, a farmer in River Falls Township in 1860.

Jerry Flint letter of December 26, 1862, from the Jerry E. Flint Paper (River Falls Mss BN) at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls University Archives & Area Research Center