from Blackwater Quartet, selection 77

Letters from the Earth

                               Blue rondos a la Garbo…

                                                     I think of you, and the days come through in pieces

CAMP ON BOARD DIANA, MARCH 18, 1862

I embrace the present opportunity

of dropping you a few lines.

I did not think that I would write again

until I received some money,

but the time has come when we were to be paid,

and yet another disappointment.

I cannot tell whose fault it is,

but there is palpable injustice

to say the least of it.

Somewhere, we were ordered aboard the steamer Diana

the day before yesterday, and promised once started

we would receive pay for the months

of January and February.

                               I think of you, 

                                                and for cocaine my dove’s foot  

                                                in these branches  

                                                cannot be steadied more

The boys started off in good spirits,

but we laid at the wharf eighteen hours.

A great many of the boys were drunk,

and tried how troublesome they could be.

We had our hands full to keep them down.

We started from Louisville yesterday at ten,

ran down about twenty miles, and hauled in

on the Kentucky shore about three in the afternoon,

where we are yet awaiting for the Brigade to come down.

We are very much crowded on board.

Our Regiment wagons, teams and all,

make it disagreeable.

The night before last I slept on the hurricane deck

and last night in the cabin.

I am still enjoying good health,

though Tom Debenport has the mumps.

Thomas Hamrich is also with us

and is getting pretty scared, but the balance is well.

Cam Williams got his money and seems proud of it.

The boys who received their money spent it freely,

indulging in all the luxuries of city life.

I was content with the usual camp fare,

thinking that when the money was gone

it would go hard on them coming down again

to hard crackers and fat bacon.

Kav Bullock is promoted to a captaincy

of the Company that Tom had,

and I send an extract from The Louisville Journal

about our Regiment, and will write as soon as I can.

In the meantime I should like to hear from you

as often as possible.

Address to Louisville, where arrangements are made

to forward to the Regiment.

                                        the roads aligned

                                                and the distances contained

REYNOLDS STATION, JULY 5, 1862

Yesterday I went to Pulaski, and there

met with the Major for the first time since his return.

He was in command of the camp,

and so busily engaged that I could not get

an opportunity of speaking a dozen words to him.

He gave me your letter, a pair of socks,

and a cake for which accept my kindest regards.

The cake I divided as you instructed

after coming back to camp.

We are now in the midst of great excitement.

Yesterday I found Pulaski blockaded.

Expecting an attack every hour,

they have been laying on arms for three days,

though they have less than half the forces of the rebels

and all the trains and commissary stores

of this Division to guard.

Report by telegraph say the Ninth Michigan

and Third Minnesota Regiments are prisoners,

and Murfreesborough taken by the rebels.

The first time we apprehended any danger

we had two hundred infantry

and less than eight hundred cavalry,

and last night sent off one hundred cavalry.

The rail cars were kept here all night

waiting on General Nelson’s Division,

which is ordered up but has not yet come,

and our mail and papers did not come yesterday.

                                         keeping still

                                                until the body burns

                                                and falls away

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, AUGUST 9, 1862

Another week has rolled around,

and with it my obligation to drop you a few lines,

though I have nothing of interest to write.

I am still in the hospital here, though better,

and am in no pain, only neuralgic pains

and they are not severe

but when I exercise too much and get my blood warm.

I despise to be thus confined.

Only a few in hospital here

but what are out all day in town.

I steal a march on the old doctor myself sometimes,

though he watches me very close.

Tom Williams is here,

but has not come out since he came.

I never saw a man try as hard to die.

Only a few days ago he concluded a few hours

would wind up his earthly career.

Accordingly, I had to write a letter to that effect,

but in a few hours he belched the wind

off his stomach, which relieved him.

It would not do to tell him so,

but there has never been anything

the matter with him but the colic.

                                        remembered not

                                                as anything to worship

                                                or lament

There was only one died

of the number that came from our Regiment.

Another, John Thompson, belonging to Company “K”

cannot last long.

The rest of our boys will soon be able

to join the Regiment, but I do not expect

to be able to stand hard camp duty

until cool weather sets in.

If I cannot go home and have to stay in service,

I want to be with my Regiment.

They are still at Murfreesborough,

though strongly entrenched as I learn.

                                       as in scenes determined

                                                by dangerous asides

General McCook’s remains were brought in yesterday.

He was killed while riding in an ambulance

by a cowardly fiend in the shape of a rebel.

Sick, he was not able to ride horseback

and had got too far in advance of his men.

CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE, NOVEMBER 26, 1863

I take the opportunity to write,

knowing you would be anxious about me

when you heard of the great battle here,

begun on the morning of the twenty-third.

Our Brigade made the attack, drove the rebels

and occupied their first line of entrenchments.

Our Regiment lost two killed and several wounded,

Ferrin, George Faulkner’s step-son

being one of the killed.

On the twenty-fourth our Brigade laid still

while General Hooker’s forces engaged the rebels,

fought hard all day driving the enemy

from their stronghold on Lookout Mountain,

capturing eight batteries and two thousand prisoners.

Yesterday it became our turn to operate.

The rebels laid still and within rifle-shot of our line.

About noon, the order was given for our Brigade to advance,

and the most terrific battle of modern times ensued.

A spirit to conquer pervaded both armies,

but Sherman turned their right flank

and they were compelled to give way.

Our Corps charged them out of their strongholds

and up the steep hill of Missionary Ridge,

now covered with artillery and terrible with losses,

though we stand victorious with twenty seven thousand

prisoners as trophies, and more anon reported.

I cannot tell what the Regiment has lost.

I have just seen six of our men brought in dead

and hear of several others.

Three of my Company are badly wounded,

two of them mortally.

A.A. Tarvin, one of our sergeants and my old mess mate,

is shot through the mouth, I think not seriously

though his jawbone is shattered and his teeth broken out.

The rebel army is demoralised.

Our forces are still after them,

and reportedly have them surrounded.

                                       but by degrees

                                                calm and unmistakable

I was not in the battle from the effects of neuralgia

and rheumatism in my head.

I was excused, but saw it all.

The rebels are now burning and destroying all their stores,

our forces in close pursuit, with another battle

expected tomorrow near Ringold.

                                       an offering of yellow corn

                                                a calendar set in order

                                                the seasons made clear

CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE, DECEMBER 6, 1863

Yours bearing the date November twenty-second

is at hand. Impatient to hear from you,

as since I last wrote the Regiment was ordered out

and I was not able to go with them,

and was left in camp with several others.

I was very lonesome, and asked to go to the hospital

to do what I could in nursing our wounded,

as I had heard they were suffering for attention.

I found them worse than I expected,

and was put on duty on one of the largest wards

among complete strangers.

The weather was very cool, the windows open,

and no fires allowed.

I caught a severe cold which rendered me unfit,

and though I have asked to go back several times,

it has been refused me, but today

I shall go without orders.

                                         To orient the days

                                                and not float forever

It is horrible to see the suffering here.

Our hospital is only one of many in Chattanooga,

yet there are over three hundred patients

wounded in every manner, some with arms off

and some with legs off.

I have been here since the first day of December

and have witnessed scenes of suffering

that would sicken the heart of any man.

My ward contains thirty-two men,

and we have lost but one since I came,

though our dead house is kept pretty full

from other wards.

                                           tool devotion

                                                to a necessary repose

CAMP AT CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE, DECEMBER 12, 1863

I have anxiously expected a letter from you

for several days, but being disappointed

I shall devote a few moments to a short letter.

I returned to camp yesterday,

having been at the hospital doing what I could.

Bill Parker is the only one from our Regiment

who died there, but there are two or three others

whose recovery is doubted.

We hear the Regiment is coming back in a few days

from somewhere in South Carolina,

though nothing definite from it,

only that it was at Kingston.

                                        selective, affixing

                                                nuclear or lithesome

                                                burning clean

                                                though not without reprisal

Chattanooga is still a dry place, no settler’s store,

not anything that a soldier could buy,

not even a sheet of paper.

                                                      perhaps not without

                                                a turning glance sometimes

                                                sometimes not without

                                                a moment of intended recognition 

                                                a kind of believing

                                  

Colonel Mundy was relieved at Louisville

and ordered here.

He arrived in town a few days ago,

reported to General Thomas, stayed three days,

and returned home without visiting camp or hospital

to see his men.

I understand he has resigned.

                                        The sky falls in

                                                but a lone figure

                                                remains in sunlight

None of our wounded have yet got furloughs,

but for two lieutenants who were slightly wounded.

                                      in moonlight

It is now thought that we will remain

on the defensive until spring.

The rebels are fortifying at Dalton.

I have learned that General Hardee will supersede Bragg

and is ordered to act on the aggressive.

I must close now, as I have just done a big washing,

am very tired, and must go to cooking dinner.

                                       cloud shadows

                                                moving across her face

                                                passing

DECEMBER 12, THREE O’CLOCK PM

Yours bearing the date November twenty-ninth

and mailed December second is just received.

Enclosed I find four P.O. stamps.

I have a pretty good supply of stamps,

getting them from Dr. Black.

                                      and the stars, too

                                                remaining

IN THE FIELD SEVEN MILES NORTH OF MARIETTA,

GEORGIA, JUNE 14, 1864

… daily expecting heavy fighting along entire line

have been in the woods two and a half days

without moving expecting orders I feel quite unwell

Frisley was killed Hardison missing

James Buckner left wounded in the field

but few left to tell

                                       causes having little

                                                to do with what certain scenes arise from

peace to our country pray for me I think of you

why