Letters Home to Sarah: The Civil War Letters of Guy C. Taylor, Thirty-Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers

7. Lee’s Retreat: March 27 to May 14, 1865

In this segment of letters, Taylor captured the emotions of the Union soldiers as they anticipated the last great o¤ensive of the war. He also described their reactions as they dealt with the possibility of losing their lives in order to save their nation. In his April 4 letter to Sarah, Taylor announced, “We broke the rebs lines in frunt of ous at ½ pass 9 am April the 2ed.” After nearly a year of conducting trench warfare in front of Richmond and Petersburg, Union forces were ending the stalemate, and the final stage of the struggle between the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virgina was at hand. In his letters, Taylor described the retreat of General Lee and his proud Army of Northern Virginia and recounted how he and the other men in the Thirty-Sixth Wisconsin were actively involved in the military events that culminated in Lee’s historic surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. During the chase, some of Taylor’s letters took the form of mere notes hurriedly written, an indication of an army being on the move. Other letters were longer. They revealed the horror of war as Taylor witnessed dead and dying Rebel soldiers left behind as others raced to escape the relentless pursuit of Grant’s Army of the Potomac. After the surrender, Taylor’s letters documented the march back to Richmond and his subsequent journey to Washington. In addition, they revealed to Sarah the various dangers he had been in during his service since he no longer needed to shield her from the truth of his previous encounters. His letters also demonstrated the soldiers’ gradual transition from wartime to peacetime as the men’s focus began to shift from fighting battles to longing for home and seeing loved ones again. 236 c h a p t e r 7 Lee’s Retreat March 27 to May 14, 1865  Near Hatchers run March 27th 1865 Dear Wife I received your welcom letter yesterday morning and was vary glad to hear once more from home for it had bin somtime since I had hurd from you, but I was well provided with nuse from home yesterday I got two letters from you and one from Mother Thompson, and one from Amanda so you can guess wheather I injoyed the day or not, (after a battle) ear you get this you will hear threw the press the work that has bin don hear in a short time, but you will not hear the perticulars about our reg. in the papers, (it is worth note) to the great surprise of the 36 their was a fite and the 36 Wis. Vol. was not in it at all. All that they don was to string along the line of works so in case the line of battle that went out in frunt shood be broke and have to fall back their wood be men all along the line to have them raly on the works, but the line of battle went rite onward and took two lines of the pickets works of the Johneys, and the fire was so hot that our men had to make use of the Johneys pits to cover them from the fire, and we have now made a line of works their for our pickets. Everthing was still yesterday our March 27 to May 14, 1865 237 Petersburg to Appomattox, April 2 to April 9, 1865 (map by Patsy Alderson) men was makeing works and bararying the ded . . . I was all along on the picket line wheir the fiteing was don and it was anything but a pleasent site to see but then we are youst to such things. Our men are not more then ten rods from the rebs, but they do not fire on one another at all if they shood it wood slay men at a great rate but we do not cair about fireing on picket and the Johnyes knows if they begin it we will keep it agoine and they well know that they will get the worst of it for they will have onley our pickets to fire on and our pickets are so close to their main line of works that they wood not dair to show their heads, if they shood they mite as well have a pit dug for them for one of our sharpshooters balls wood find its...