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DETAILED MINUTIAE
OF
SOLDIER LIFE
IN THE
ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA
1861-1865
BY
CARLTON MCCARTHY
PRIVATE SECOND COMPANY RICHMOND HOWITZERS, CUTSHAW'S BATTALION
ARTILLERY, SECOND CORPS, A.N.V.
_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS_
BY
WM. L. SHEPPARD, Esq.
LIEUTENANT SECOND COMPANY RICHMOND HOWITZERS, A.N.V.
RICHMOND
CARLTON MCCARTHY AND COMPANY
1882
Copyright, 1882,
BY CARLTON McCARTHY.
_The Riverside Press, Cambridge_:
Printed by H.O. Houghton and Company.
To
THE MEMORY OF MY BROTHER,
EDWARD STEVENS McCARTHY,
CAPTAIN FIRST COMPANY RICHMOND HOWITZERS:
WHO FELL AT COLD HARBOR,
_June 4, 1864_,
A CONFEDERATE SOLDIER.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
A VOICE FROM THE RANKS 1
CHAPTER II.
THE OUTFIT MODIFIED 16
CHAPTER III.
ROMANTIC IDEAS DISSIPATED 29
CHAPTER IV.
ON THE MARCH 41
CHAPTER V.
COOKING AND EATING 56
CHAPTER VI.
COMFORTS, CONVENIENCES, AND CONSOLATIONS 73
CHAPTER VII.
FUN AND FURY ON THE FIELD 94
CHAPTER VIII.
IMPROVISED INFANTRY 116
CHAPTER IX.
"BRAVE SURVIVORS" HOMEWARD BOUND 159
CHAPTER X.
SOLDIERS TRANSFORMED 177
CHAPTER XI.
CAMP FIRES OF THE BOYS IN GRAY 194
CHAPTER XII.
THE BATTLE FLAG 219
SOLDIER LIFE
IN THE
ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA.
CHAPTER I.
A VOICE FROM THE RANKS.--INTRODUCTORY.
We are familiar with the names and deeds of the "generals," from the
commander-in-chief down to the almost innumerable brigadiers, and we are
all more or less ignorant of the habits and characteristics of the
individuals who composed the rank and file of the "grand armies" of
1861-65.
As time rolls on, the historian, condensing matters, mentions "the men"
by brigades, divisions, and corps. But here let us look at the
individual soldier separated from the huge masses of men composing the
armies, and doing his own work and duty.
The fame of Lee and Jackson, world-wide, and as the years increase ever
brighter, is but condensed and personified admiration of the
Confederate soldier, wrung from an unwilling world by his matchless
courage, endurance, and devotion. Their fame is an everlasting monument
to the mighty deeds of the nameless host who followed them through so
much toil and blood to glorious victories.
The weak, as a rule, are borne down by the strong; but that does not
prove that the strong are also the right. The weak suffer wrong, learn
the bitterness of it, and finally, by resisting it, become the defenders
of right and justice. When the mighty nations of the earth oppress the
feeble, they nerve the arms and fire the hearts of God's instruments for
the restoration of justice; and when one section of a country oppresses
and insults another, the result is the pervasive malady,--war! which
will work out the health of the nation, or leave it a bloody corpse.
The principles for which the Confederate soldier fought, and in defense
of which he died, are to-day the harmony of this country. So long as
they were held in abeyance, the country was in turmoil and on the verge
of ruin.
It is not fair to demand a reason for actions above reason. The heart is
greater than the mind. No man can exactly define the cause for which the
Confederate soldier fought. He was above human reason and above human
law, secure in his own rectitude of purpose, accountable to God only,
having assumed for himself a "nationality," which he was minded to
defend with his life and his property, and thereto pledged his sacred
honor.
In the honesty and simplicity of his heart, the Confederate soldier had
neglected his own interests and rights, until his accumulated wrongs and
indignities forced him to one grand, prolonged effort to free himself
from the pain of them. He dared not refuse to hear the call to arms, so
plain was the duty and so urgent the call. His brethren and friends were
answering the bugle-call and the roll of the drum. To stay was dishonor
and shame!
He would not obey the dictates of tyranny. To disobey was death. He
disobeyed and fought for his life. The romance of war charmed him, and
he hurried from the embrace of his mother to the embrace of death. His
playmates, his friends, and his associates were gone; he was lonesome,
and he sought a reunion "in camp." He would not receive as gospel the
dogmas of fanatics, and so he became a "rebel." Being a rebel, he must
be punished. Being punished, he resisted. Resisting, he died.
The Confederate soldier opposed immense odds. In the "seven days
battles" around Richmond, 80,000 drove to the James River 115,000 of the
enemy. At Fredericksburg, in 1862, 78,000 of them routed 110,000
Federal troops. At Chancellorsville, in 1863, 57,000 under Lee and
Jackson whipped, and but for the death of Jackson would have
annihilated, an army of 132,000 men,--more than double their own number.
At Gettysburg, 62,000 of them assailed the heights manned by 112,000. At
the Wilderness, in 1864, 63,000 met and successfully resisted 141,000 of
the enemy. At Appomattox, in April, 1865, 8,000 of them surrendered to
the host commanded by Grant. The United States government, at the end of
the war, mustered out of service 1,000,000 of men, and had in the field,
from first to last, 2,600,000. If the Confederate soldier had then had
only this disparity of numbers to contend with, he would have driven
every invader from the soil of Virginia.
But the Confederate soldier fought, in addition to these odds, the
facilities for the transportation and concentration of troops and
supplies afforded by the network of railways in the country north of
him, all of which were subject to the control of the government, and
backed by a treasury which was turning out money by the ton, one dollar
of which was equal to sixty Confederate dollars.
It should be remembered also that, while the South was restricted to its
own territory for supplies, and its own people for men, the North drew
on the world for material, and on every nation of the earth for men.
The arms and ammunition of the Federal soldiers were abundant and
good,--so abundant and so good that they supplied _both_ armies, and
were greatly preferred by Confederate officers. The equipment of the
Federal armies was well-nigh perfect. The facilities for manufacture
were simply unlimited, and the nation thought no expenditure of treasure
too great, if only the country, the _Union_! could be saved. The factory
and the foundry chimneys made a pillar of smoke by day and of fire by
night. The latest improvements were hurried to the front, and adopted by
both armies almost simultaneously; for hardly had the Federal bought,
when the Confederate captured, and used, the _very latest_.
Commissary stores were piled up all over Virginia, for the use of the
invading armies. They had more than they could protect, and their loss
was gain to the hungry defenders of the soil.
The Confederate soldier fought a host of ills occasioned by the
deprivation of chloroform and morphia, which were excluded from the
Confederacy, by the blockade, as contraband of war. The man who has
submitted to amputation without chloroform, or tossed on a couch of
agony for a night and a day without sleep for the want of a dose of
morphia, may possibly be able to estimate the advantages which resulted
from the possession by the Federal surgeons of an unlimited supply of
these.
The Confederate soldier fought bounties and regular monthly pay; the
"Stars and Stripes," the "Star Spangled Banner," "Hail Columbia,"
"Tramp, Tramp, Tramp," "John Brown's Body," "Rally round the Flag," and
all the fury and fanaticism which skilled minds could create,--opposing
this grand array with the modest and homely refrain of "Dixie,"
supported by a mild solution of "Maryland, My Maryland." He fought good
wagons, fat horses, and tons of quartermaster's stores; pontoon trains,
of splendid material and construction, by the mile; gunboats, wooden and
iron, and men-of-war; illustrated papers, to cheer the "Boys in Blue"
with sketches of the glorious deeds they did not do; Bibles by the car
load, and tracts by the million,--the first to prepare them for death,
and the second to urge upon them the duty of dying.
The Confederate soldier fought the "Sanitary Commission," whose members,
armed with every facility and convenience, quickly carried the sick and
wounded of the Federal army to comfortable quarters, removed the bloody
garments, laid the sufferer on a clean and dry couch, clothed him in
clean things, and fed him on the best the world could afford and money
buy.
He fought the well-built, thoroughly equipped ambulances, the countless
surgeons, nurses, and hospital stewards, and the best surgical
appliances known to the medical world. He fought the commerce of the
United States and all the facilities for war which Europe could supply,
while his own ports were closed to all the world. He fought the trained
army officers and the regular troops of the United States Army, assisted
by splendid native volunteer soldiers, besides swarms of men, the refuse
of the earth,--Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German, Irish, Scotch,
English, French, Chinese, Japanese,--white, black, olive, and brown. He
laid down life for life with this hireling host, who died for pay,
mourned by no one, missed by no one, loved by no one; who were better
fed and clothed, fatter, happier, and more contented in the army than
ever they were at home, and whose graves strew the earth in lonesome
places, where none go to weep. When one of these fell, two could be
bought to fill the gap. The Confederate soldier killed these without
compunction, and their comrades buried them without a tear.
The Confederate soldier fought the cries of distress which came from
his home,--tales of woe, want, insult, and robbery. He fought men who
knew that _their_ homes (when they had any) were safe, their wives and
children, their parents and sisters, sheltered, and their business
affairs more than usually prosperous; who could draw sight drafts, have
them honored, and make the camp table as bountiful and luxurious as that
of a New York hotel. He fought a government founded by the genius of his
fathers, which derived its strength from principles they formulated, and
which persuaded its soldiers that they were the champions of the
constitutional liberty which they were marching to invade, and
eventually to destroy.
The relative strength of armies becomes a matter of secondary importance
when these facts are considered. The disparity of numbers only, would
never have produced the result which the combination of these various
forces did,--the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia.
The Confederate soldier was purely patriotic. He foresaw clearly, and
deliberately chose, the trials which he endured. He was an individual
who could not become the indefinite portion of a mass, but fought for
himself, on his own account. He was a self-sacrificing hero, but did not
claim that distinction or any merit, feeling only that he was in the
line of duty to self, country, and God. He fought for a principle, and
needed neither driving nor urging, but was eager and determined to
fight. He was not a politic man, but a man under fervent feeling,
forgetful of the possibilities and calamities of war, pressing his
claims to the rights of humanity.
The Confederate soldier was a monomaniac for four years. His mania was,
the independence of the Confederates States of America, secured by force
of arms.
The Confederate soldier was a venerable old man, a youth, a child, a
preacher, a farmer, merchant, student, statesman, orator, father,
brother, husband, son,--the wonder of the world, the terror of his foes!
If the peace of this country can only be preserved by forgetting the
Confederate soldier's deeds and his claims upon the South, the blessing
is too dearly bought. We have sworn to be grateful to him. Dying, his
head pillowed on the bosom of his mother, Virginia, he heard that his
name would be honored.
When we fill up, hurriedly, the bloody chasm opened by war, we should be
careful that we do not bury therein many noble deeds, some tender
memories, some grand examples, and some hearty promises washed with
tears.
The following letter, written by an aged father to his only son, then a
mere boy, who had volunteered as an infantry soldier and was already in
the field, is an appropriate conclusion to this chapter; showing
admirably well the kind of inspiration which went from Southern homes to
Southern soldiers:--
AT HOME, _July 17, 1861_.
MY DEAR SON,--It may have seemed strange to you that a
professing Christian father so freely gave you, a Christian son, to
enlist in the volunteer service. My reason was that I regarded this
as a _purely defensive war_. Not only did the Southern Confederacy
propose to adjust the pending difficulties by peaceful and equitable
negotiations, but Virginia used again and again the most earnest and
noble efforts to prevent a resort to the sword. These overtures
having been proudly spurned, and our beloved South having been
threatened with invasion and subjugation, it seemed to me that
nothing was left us but stern resistance, or abject submission, to
unconstitutional power. A brave and generous people could not for a
moment hesitate between such alternatives. A war in defense of our
homes and firesides, of our wives and children, of all that makes
life worth possessing, is the result. While I most deeply deplored
the necessity for the sacrifice, I could not but rejoice that I had a
son to offer to the service of the country, and if I had a dozen, _I
would most freely give them all_. As you are now cheerfully enduring
the hardships of the camp, I know you will listen to a father's
suggestions touching the duties of your new mode of life.
1. Take special care of your health. More soldiers die of disease
than in battle. A thin piece of damp sponge in the crown of your hat
during exposure to the hot sun, the use of thick shoes and a
water-proof coat in rainy weather, the practice of drinking cold
water when you are very warm as slowly as you sip hot tea, the
thorough mastication of your food, the avoiding of damp tents and
damp grounds during sleep, and frequent ablutions of your person are
all the hints I can give you on this point. Should you need anything
that I can supply, let me hear from you. I will do what I can to make
you comfortable. After all, you must learn to endure hardness as a
good soldier. Having never slept a single night in your whole life
except in a pleasant bed, and never known a scarcity of good food,
you doubtless find the ways of the camp rough; but never mind. The
war, I trust, will soon be over, and then the remembrance of your
hardships will sweeten the joy of peace.
2. The rules of war require prompt and unquestioning obedience. You
may sometimes think the command arbitrary and the officer
supercilious, but _it is yours to obey_. An undisciplined army is a
curse to its friends and a derision to its foes. Give your whole
influence, therefore, to the maintenance of lawful authority and of
strict order. Let your superiors feel assured that whatever they
entrust to _you_ will be faithfully done. Composed of such soldiers,
and led by skillful and brave commanders, our army, by the blessing
of God, will never be defeated. It is, moreover, engaged in a holy
cause, and must triumph.
3. Try to maintain your Christian profession among your comrades. I
need not caution you against strong drink as useless and hurtful, nor
against profanity, so common among soldiers. Both these practices you
abhor. Aim to take at once a decided stand for God. If practicable
have prayers regularly in your tent, or unite with your
fellow-disciples in prayer-meetings in the camp. Should preaching be
accessible, always be a hearer. Let the world know that you are a
Christian. Read a chapter in the New Testament, which your mother
gave you, every morning and evening, when you can, and engage in
secret prayer to God for his holy Spirit to guide and sustain you. I
would rather hear of your death than of the shipwreck of your faith
and good conscience.
4. As you will come into habitual contact with men of every grade,
make special associates only of those whose influence on your
character is felt to be good. Some men love to tell extravagant
stories, to indulge in vulgar wit, to exult in a swaggering carriage,
to pride themselves on their coarse manners, to boast of their
heroism, and to give utterance to feelings of revenge against the
enemy. All this is injurious to young and impressible minds. If you
admire such things, you will insensibly imitate them, and imitation
will work gradual but certain detriment to your character. Other men
are refined without being affected. They can relax into occasional
pleasantries without violating modesty. They can be loyal to their
government without indulging private hatred against her foes. They
can be cool and brave in battle, and not be braggarts in the absence
of danger. Above all, they can be humble, spiritual, and active
Christians, and yet mingle in the stirring and perilous duties of
soldier-life. Let these be your companions and models. You will thus
return from the dangers of camp without a blemish on your name.
5. Should it be your lot to enter into an engagement with the enemy,
lift up your heart in secret ejaculations to the ever-present and
good Being, that He will protect you from sudden death, or if you
fall, that He will receive your departing spirit, cleansed in the
blood of Jesus, into His kingdom. It is better to trust in the Lord
than to put confidence in princes. Commit your eternal interests,
therefore, to the keeping of the Almighty Saviour. You should not,
even in the hour of deadly conflict, cherish personal rage against
the enemy, any more than an officer of the law hates the victim of
the law. How often does a victorious army tenderly care for the dead
and wounded of the vanquished. War is a tremendous scourge which
Providence sometimes uses to chastise proud and wicked nations. Both
parties must suffer, even though one may get the advantage. There is
no occasion then for adding to the intrinsic evils of the system the
odious feature of animosity to individuals. In the ranks of the foe
are thousands of plain men who do not understand the principles for
which we are struggling. They are deceived by artful demagogues into
a posture of hostility to those whom, knowing, they would love. It is
against such men that you may perhaps be arrayed, and the laws of war
do not forbid you to pity them even in the act of destroying them. It
is the more important that _we_ should exhibit a proper temper in
this unfortunate contest, because many professed Christians and
ministers of the gospel at the North are breathing out, in their very
prayers and sermons, threatenings and slaughter against us. Oh! how
painful that a gray-headed pastor should publicly exclaim, "_I would
hang them as quick as I would shoot a mad dog!_"
6. Providence has placed you in the midst of thoughtless and
unpardoned men. What a beautiful thing it would be if you could win
some of them to the Saviour. Will you not try? You will have many
opportunities of saying a word in season. The sick you may comfort,
the wavering you may confirm, the backslidden you may reclaim, the
weary and heavy laden you may point to Jesus for rest to the soul. It
is not presumptuous for a young man kindly and meekly to commend the
gospel to his brother soldiers. The hardest of them will not repel a
gentle approach, made in private. And many of them would doubtless be
glad to have the subject introduced to them. They desire to hear of
Jesus, but they lack courage to inquire of his people. An unusually
large proportion of pious men have entered the army, and I trust they
will give a new complexion to military life. Let them search out each
other, and establish a fraternity among all the worshipers of God.
To interchange religious views and administer brotherly counsel will
be mutually edifying. "He that watereth shall be watered also
himself."
And now, as a soldier has but little leisure, I will not occupy you
longer. Be assured that every morning and evening we remember you, at
the family altar, to our Father in Heaven. We pray for "a speedy,
just, and honorable peace," and for the safe return of all the
volunteers to their loved homes. All the children speak often of
"brother," and hear your letters read with intense interest. That God
Almighty may be your shield and your exceeding great reward, is the
constant prayer of your loving father.