Even the typical soldiers I have been personally intimate with,--it
seems to me if I were to make a list of them it would be like a city
directory. Some few only have I mention'd in the foregoing pages--most
are dead--a few yet living. There is Reuben Farwell, of Michigan,
(little "Mitch;") Benton H. Wilson, color-bearer, 185th New York; Wm.
Stansberry; Manvill Winterstein, Ohio; Bethuel Smith; Capt. Simms, of
51st New York, (kill'd at Petersburgh mine explosion,) Capt. Sam. Pooley
and Lieut. Fred. McReady, same reg't. Also, same reg't., my brother,
George W. Whitman--in active service all through, four years,
re-enlisting twice--was promoted, step by step, (several times
immediately after battles,) lieutenant, captain, major and lieut.
colonel--was in the actions at Roanoke, Newbern, 2d Bull Run, Chantilly,
South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburgh, Vicksburgh, Jackson, the
bloody conflicts of the Wilderness, and at Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor,
and afterwards around Petersburgh; at one of these latter was taken
prisoner, and pass'd four or five months in secesh military prisons,
narrowly escaping with life, from a severe fever, from starvation and
half-nakedness in the winter. (What a history that 51st New York had!
Went out early--march'd, fought everywhere--was in storms at sea, nearly
wreck'd--storm'd forts--tramp'd hither and yon in Virginia,
night and day, summer of '62--afterwards Kentucky and
Mississippi--re-enlisted--was in all the engagements and campaigns, as
above.) I strengthen and comfort myself much with the certainty that
the capacity for just such regiments, (hundreds, thousands of them) is
inexhaustible in the United States, and that there isn't a county nor a
township in the republic--nor a street in any city--but could turn out,
and, on occasion, would turn out, lots of just such typical soldiers,
whenever wanted.
"CONVULSIVENESS"
As I have look'd over the proof-sheets of the preceding pages, I have
once or twice fear'd that my diary would prove, at best, but a batch of
convulsively written reminiscences. Well, be it so.
They are but parts of the actual distraction, heat, smoke and excitement
of those times. The war itself, with the temper of society preceding it,
can indeed be best described by that very word _convulsiveness_.