Army Life: From a Soldier's Journal

Appendix C: The Thirty-third in Print

Appendix C The Thirty-third in Print In February 1862, the St. Louis Missouri Democrat published two letters from an anonymous correspondent from the Thirty-third Illinois from Ironton. They are transcribed below. St. Louis Missouri Democrat Feb. 13, 1862. From Ironton THE THIRTY-THIRDERS—CAPT ELLIOTT EXCHANGED— ONE THOUSAND FIGHTING MEN FORT HOVEY, IRONTON, MO., FEB, 10, 1862 Editors Missouri Democrat: All the world is agog with the excitement of the “onward movement” now fairly begun. It has reached even the quiet village of Arcadia, where since the stirring events of last fall at Big River Bridge and Fredericktown, the Normal Regiment has peacefully been drilling and toughening. We are, as you know, nearly all young, unmarried men, and though students and teachers, and men of that “ilk,” are none of your lean, sickly sort. 279 We belong to the “sound body” wing of the “brain” tribe, and believe ourselves able to do just so much marching and just so vigorous fighting as the General commanding shall order. We await the order. Our ranks are full and hospital empty. The gallant Capt. Elliott and two dozen comrades, who fought at Big River bridge, against over six hundred rebels, and at last, after having slain twenty-two men, were compelled to surrender, have just been exchanged. Isaac is himself again. He will join his regiment in a few days, together with his boys, who will swell our number to a round thousand fighting men. The Twenty-onesters, the bloody, have already, as you know, taken up their line of march for Greenville. Colonel Baker and his Hoosiers profess an entire willingness to visit various objects of interest in Dixie, while the Thirtyeighth is in excellent trim, and Capt. Manter, who everybody knows, or ought to, is exactly the man to introduce his “Pet Lambs” to our friends over the border —they would bleat, under his promptings, to the point and in time, and all the time, if needed. I will give the “personnel” of our officers, or some of them in my next. Thirty-Third. St. Louis Missouri Democrat Feb. 21, 1862. The Normal Regiment PROFESSORS IN EPAULETTS—DIPLOMAS EXCHANGED FOR COMMISSIONS AND GOWNS FOR UNIFORMS FORT HOVEY, ARCADIA, MO., FEBRUARY 18, 1862 In my first note, I promised in a second some account of the personnel of our regiment. The rank and file are an intelligent body of men, who, like the balance of the grand Union army, enlisted, not from any love of courage, but Appendix C 280 of country. They are not so much soldiers of fortune as soldiers of principle, though dreams of honor may have been dreampt [sic] in our camp as well as elsewhere. The controlling idea is that the Republic shall live—shall live to thwart the predictions and hopes of tyrants, cis-Atlantic and trans-Atlantic. I will not deny that there exists among us a strong desire to test the boasted powers of the chivalry. From infancy up, we have observed an affected superiority by them both ungentlemanly and insulting. Now let us meet us man to man in a fair field and settle the question, or, if they prefer strategy, we will oppose our Halleck and McClellan to their Beauregard and Johnson [sic], or “any other man.” Let them build their forts and their marked batteries or navigate their steam rams. A few well-constructed gunboats and well planned flank movements will furnish explanations entirely satisfactory. I say there is a feeling of this sort, hardly confessed, but yet well defined and strong. We do not swear much—we students—but I would not like to go security for the morals of the camp, should this war terminate without fully testing the vaunted powers of Southern chivalry. Colonel Hovey is a Green Mountain boy, a graduate of Dartmouth, where, while a student, he was by common consent accorded the post of leader, and received the highest honors of the college. Since then he has rapidly risen till now he is the most influential man of the great common school interest in Illinois. At the time of entering the service, though a young man, hardly thirtyfour , he was at the head of the State University. As the superintendent of schools in Peoria, he made a host of friends, in fact, wherever he has been, he has succeeded. Whatever enterprise he touched, at once assumed importance and commanded confidence. Lieut...