Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw

CHAPTER FIVE: "Ladies with Petticoats About"

C H A P T E R 5 Tidies withpetticoats about" Union armies had accomplished little by the end of 1861. At Ball's Bluff, Virginia, Confederate troops surprised and routed the Federals. Many of Shaw's friends, including future Supreme Court Justice OliverWendell Holmes, Jr., suffered wounds, death, or capture. In Southern elections, Rebel victories helped elect Jefferson Davis to a six-year term as president of the Confederacy. With his regiment in winter quarters near Frederick, Maryland, Lieutenant Shaw lived through unhealthy conditions and camping in the snow. As Thanksgiving gaveway to Christmas, the first massdesertions from the army required him to serve on a court-martial board. But Shaw also enjoyed life in the city and spent many evenings dancing at night-long parties. After five months of living with men, he took advantage of the companionship of women. Shaw also entertained his mother and father and others who took the opportunity to visit while the army layidle in camp. Even while he made merry, Shaw reckoned: "We shall have much more soldiering to do than we expected when we started." 154 l Conrad's Ferry [RGS] Oct. 2,2,, 1861 Dearest Mother, We marched all night, and arrived here this morning in a pouring rain. So, instead of resting, we had to stand up until 2, P.M., as there are no buildings in the neighbourhood. We have pitched our tents now. All along the road, we met men of the Fifteenth Massachusetts, who told us their regiment had crossed, been surprised by a superior force, and very much cut up.1 A good many of them were in their shirts, having thrown off their clothes to swim. We thought they exaggerated the story, but imagine how we felt, on arriving here, to find that not only the Fifteenth, but the Twentieth, in which we have so many friends, had suffered terribly, and especially the officers.2 Willie Putnam was wounded, and probably cannot recover.3 Jim Lowell, his cousin (First Lieutenant of same company), is wounded, I don't know how badly, and Schmidt (their Captain) also.4 John Putnam has lost an arm.5 Poor Wendell Holmes has a ball through the leg, and one through the lungs.6 All these were taken down to the hospital at Poolesville, this morning, in a canal-boat. Willie Putnam sent for Henry Higginson when he heard we had arrived, and Henry says he lay on his cot, and talked as calmly about the fight as if he were in perfect health, though he knows he has little chance of living.7 Henry Sturgis carried him down to the river after he was hit. Colonel Lee and Major Revere are also missing.8 Of the Fifteenth, there are only three or four of the company officers left, the rest killed and missing. Many will probably turn up. Caspar, whom Curtis saw, says the men behaved splendidly, and the officers evidently exposed themselves recklessly, and they must have had their wits about them, for they remember all the circumstances of the fight, and speak about it with wonderful calmness.9 General Baker,of the California regiment, was killed.10 The first body of men that went over were sent to surprise a camp by night. They arrived only at daylight, and, being discovered, a large body of troops came down from Leesburg; and as we only had one boat to send over reinforcements, they could not be furnished with men enough, and were overwhelmed. The California Brigade, the Tammany Regiment, and the two others were sent over piecemeal, which did no good at all.11 So the general engagement was brought on by accident, and the leaders are the ones who blundered, asusual. Imagine having only one boat, which would hold at most thirty-five or forty men, and no means of retreat! Caspar was one of the last to leave, and he swam the river. Holmes and Putnam were hit while lifting up a wounded officer. It is a terrible thing, but we must get used to it. I was "LADIES WITH PETTICOATS ABOUT" 155 afraid you might think we had been in this engagement, if I didn't write. Our Major sent a telegraph to the contrary to the Boston papers. I will write again as soon as we move. Your loving Son i. The Fifteenth Massachusetts Infantry organized at Worcester, mustered into service...