Wintering for the soldier

In preperation for doing a program on the winter soldier for the Kenosha Civil War Museum, I collected some material from Daniel Chisholm of the 116th Pa and James Phillips of the 12th Virginia and some notes from The Branch boys of Georgia. BURYING A BROTHER (previously posted on this site) After Christmas of 1864 James Phillips of the 12th Virginia took a train to Guinea Station Virginia. A survivor of the battle for Spotsylvania he walked the 12 miles back to the battlefield to find his brother George. “I got to the place a large rabbit jumped up in front of me and ran off. I continued to go and in a short while came upon my brother and others lying on their back just as I had left them back in May. Nothing had disturbed them as they showed no signs of anyone put ting hands upon them or even any wild animals had molested them. Their faces was as anyohe who knew them well could not help recognizing them. Their shoes, guns, cartridge boxes, belts, canteens, haversacks and even his toothbrush was fastened in the button hole of his jacket. I put my hand in his haversack and took out an ivy root pipe which he had been using for more than a year, I cut the pipe at Chancellorsville.” He buried his brother, putting the “marked board to his head.” Charlie Granger, Jim Malard, Thom Schriber, Dr. Disssisway and other proved too much for James to bury so he returned to the trenches of Petersburg. Today if you go to the confederate cemetery at Spotsylvania you can see the identified grave of James Phillip’s brother. In the unknown section no doubt lay the others mentioned above.(49-50 Phillips) STEALING A FIRE “After getting out in the main road, we was put in a piece of scrub pine., the tallest was not eight feet. Her we had nothing to make afire of so most of them used their foot to scrape ice and snow so as to get down to solid ground to sleep on. In the absence of a fire to even warm our feet we had. We saw on the opposite side of the road some nice good cheerful fires which belonged to the Alabama brigade of our Division. There were in a nice pine grove, a splendid place to camp. Now we just walked over to the camp, they were asleep soundly, so we picked up their fire, axe and all and transferred it to our quarters. These poor fellows lay there asleep until they became cold, fire gone out, all dark, no axe and no nothing. We had all and was warm and nicely fixed..” (Phillips, 69) CHRISTMAS DINNER “At this camp, the army had Christmas dinner given them by the good ladies of the cities.” (Phillips,65) “This is a very dull Christmas to us all. Most of the boys are at the station buying ginger cakes which sell for at the remarkable price of 3 for a dollar. And scarce at that.” (141 Sanford Branch) COLD/SNOW “We camped for the night and pitched our little tents and cooked and ate supper. After a short while we went to sleep when we awaked the next morning our tents and everything was covered with snow and ice. “(Phillips, 66) “The next thing in order is to prepare for sleeping. In order to do this, you wouild have to use your foot to scrape away the snow and ice then spread down one of yoru yankee cloths, then one of your overcoats, then we would use our two blankets and the other overcoat to cover up with. We covred our head and heals with this and two together keep warm” (Phillips, 67) Everybody knows what sleet is. The smallest limb on a tree as large as your arm was about four times as large covered with ice.” (Phillips, 69) I hope you will excuse this letter. It is cold I am writing in Shellman’s tent, he having a stove. The tent being closed it is very dark. (145, Sanford Branch). “The camp is on a hill close by the Rail Road and we found it covered with four or five inches of snow and a very cold place. When we arrived there the officers was having a good time so we had to stand in line out in the snow and wait until they got done eating and drinking. After a while the boy’s teeth commensed to chatter togethte and all kinds of oaths came out, easty at first, but finally they came out with such force that it would lift the snow some inches. I took out my violin and played Old Dan Tucker on it, and such a time they all had (180) They shouted and danced and made such a noise they soon brought out the officers.(Chisholm 4). December 8th 1864 at 1 a.m. we pack up and moved four miles to the left to Hatcher’s Run. We maneuvered around first to the left and then to the right. All this time the snow was falling fat and this begin a very marshy place it melted underfoot and made a think slush over shoe mouth deep and our feet soaking wet before we had gone a mile. The (after crossing a deep river) weather was so cold our clothes froze stiff in a few minutes (52 Chisholm). BAREFOOT “As the barefoot men crossed the field on the icey snow you could see the blood in their tracks.” (Phillips, 66) FIREWOOD A priority amongst the soldiers was the acquisition of wood both for building and maintaining their structures but also firewood. For cooking and heating firewood was needed by soldiers every day. Each day men, in groups and singly went out into the local forests to collect wood. As the winter progressed the wood lots cleared forcing men to travel miles in search of something to cook their rations with. “Here we would go out in the same piece of pine woods where the enemy was cutting wood for night fires and cut down a tree and I would sit down along side a federal officer and talk over matters concerning the war and trade tobacco for coffee. “ (Phillips, 70) December 9th 1864“We…stacked arms and commanded to build fires. The logs and brush were wet and we had one awful time shivering and blowing. In an hour or so our labor was rewarded by having a big log heaping burning. I do not think I ever felt anything so nice to stand up and warm my back before the log heap. It is snowing and has been all the time. At twelve we were still drying our clothes and the snow wetting us as fast as the fire dried (53, Chisholm) February 23rd “I left camp with a squad of 20 man and went to the picket line and slashed timber, twenty trees between the two picket lines. The rebs let us work without firing a shot. They could have killed us all if they had wanted to. We returned safely to camp. Chisholm, 65) SUN Jan 11 1865 “ The sun came up nice and warm this morning and is drying up the mud very fast.” (58 Chisholm). From January 11th through January 20th sunshine rained down on the men of Petersburg, its warming influence prompting Chisholm to say, “ The sun is still shedding his rays down on the heads of Uncle Sam’s boys, they are very cheerful and seem to have no cares. Crazy how a little sunshine can bring one up. RETURNING FROM PICKET “December 3rd- Clear and cold. We took up a line of march for Camp at 4 O’clock am and reached it by 10 O’clock am. I am fatigued, but the sight of my chimney puts life in me. I soon got my fly and pitched it and a fire soon built and here I am enjoying it. (Waddell 12th VA 23) FURLOUGH “Orders issued that 2 men out every 100 will be allowed furlough.” (Waddell 12th VA 23) BOREDOM “IT is snowing and very cold. There is not a particle of news and I am beginning to tire of this inactivity (Sanford Branch, 148) “December 24th Nothing worthy to note to day. The same old rigmarole of camp life. MARCHING Jan 23 1863 We staid on picket for 2 days and were relieved to march to Richmond, Commenced on Sunday morning at daylight in a terrible snow storm which continued all day. The next day it rained all day. The men were positively stuck in the mud and had to be taken out. At night we were without tents and scarcely an axe to cut wood with. (147 Sanford Branch) MUD March 3rd, 1864 “after passing a restless night (in a building with one stove) we arose early and went up to camp. IT was a regular hog wallow, for it was covered with six to eight inches of mud about the consistency of thin mortar (4, Chisholm). GETTING FOOD THE FUN WAY March 5th 1864 “It is raining and spitting snow this morning, and is very disagreeable weather. We have plenty to eat such as it is, if we do not get enough at the infantry cook house we borrow a cavalry or artillery jacket and get more. (5, Chisholm) DANGER OF CAMP Death from battle and disease, a constant with the soldier, a new enemy arose. Men packed in to small places with little to do often get on each others nerves. Cabin fever makes even the smallest offense a capitol one as we learn from Chisholm, “ We was out in camp getting our knapsacks lettered this morning and everything quick. All at once I seen a man run out of the commissary tent with a big cheese knife in his hand and run pu and threw down a man standing by a ten and stabbed him seven times with the knife in the breast.(4, Chisholm) He later explains the attack was a mistake identity , the attacker thinking the man was someone else. Sources Joslyn, Manriel. Charlotte’s Boys: Civil War Letters of the Branch Family of Savannah. Pelican Publishing Company: Gretna, 2010. Menge, Springer and August Shimrack. The Civil War Notebook of Daniel Chisholm: A Chronicle of Daily Life in the Union Army 1864-1865.Orian Books: New York, 1989. Phillips, James. Recollections. Virginia Historical Society.