Seven Months in the Rebel States During the North American War, 1863

IV. Calvary Battle at Brandy Station

78 SEVEN MONTHS IN THE REBEL STATES cold bacon for the first time in a week, and the cold camp on the open field was exchanged for a warm tent and woolen blankets. The enemy had left so many supplies that our little army was fully provided with warm bedding. General activity, good natured jests, and a feeling of ease cheerfully greeted one everywhere. The army also outfitted itself as far as possible, with woolen clothing. I had time later to inspect the defensive works of the Northerners, who seemed to believe that they were safe behind any breastworks. Therefore, fence boards that were thrown together, with some dirt thrown over them, often took the place of shelters, and they frequently did more harm than good, for a great number of corpses and men wounded by splinters were often seen lying at those places where a small mortar ball, able at most to kill one man, had smashed through the wooden material. These wounds, moreover, are much more ghastly than bullet wounds, because the splinters have a lacerating and mangling effect. On this day [May 7] General Lee issued his modest, dignified , pious Order Number 59, in which he gave God alone the glory for the victory and, far from all self-esteem and boasting, placed his merits in the background.25 On May 7 we rode in bad weather back to our old camp facing Fredericksburg, but it was located several thousand paces to the south, with a view of the picturesque Massaponax , which wound along at our feet, while oak trees and sassafras bushes between our tents afforded some shade, and the roots of the latter furnished material for a slightly sweetish but tasty tea. This is perhaps the place to give a sketch of the provisioning at headquarters. Two meals, breakfast at seven in the morning in inactive periods, at four o'clock on marches, served in the mess tent (a piece of sailcloth which protected against sun and rain), and dinner at six o'clock in the evening, or taken after the march, constituted the highly practical method of feeding. The courses were simple, the same in the mornings as in the evenings: cornbread (bread 25 ORA, 1 series, XXV, 805. BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE 79 baked of maize) and wheatbread lay on the table, the latter often prepared as crackers. There was also coffee mixed with parched wheat or corn, and some tea, also sassafras tea, meat and molasses (a type of syrup cooked from sugarcane ). Butter was a rare delicacy, as were eggs. Nevertheless , with the attendant hunger, never has a dinner tasted better than this simple food in pleasant company. On many days there was naturally nothing but bacon and crackers, with which was drunk the splendid spring water that gushes forth, pure, cold, and silvery clear, every thousand steps in Virginia. In camp life I also became better acquainted with the troops, who, in spite of hardships, in spite of the earnest disposition that the war aroused in the Southerners, were by no means averse to humor, which especially characterized the wild Texans. There have been published so many letters of private soldiers from the campaigns in Schleswig and Holstein, from Bohemia, from Italy, etc., to show the character and the spirit of the army, that there may be a place here for a note from a young member of the Stonewall Brigade which gives some idea of the innocuous camp humor of the Confederates. I translate it as literally as possible.26 We left Old Stonewall in the story when he was being borne away from the tumult of the Wilderness, severely wounded. When the news of the wounding was brought to General Lee, he said: "Indeed, it is a pity, gentlemen; he has lost his left arm, but I have lost more, for I have lost my right !"27 General Lee sat down immediately and during the Battle of Chancellorsville wrote [his now] famous lines to his severely wounded friend: "Could I have directed events, I 26 This long letter and a sketch of Jackson's early life (omitted here) may be seen in Cooke, pp. 14-15, 19-21ff., 220-223. 27 Freeman, II, 560; see also R. L. Dabney, Life and Campaigns of Lieut-Gen. Thomas J. Jackson (New York and Richmond, 1866) p.716, and Cooke, p. 271. 80 SEVEN MONTHS IN THE REBEL STATES would...