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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 [Firs [290 Lines —— -0.1 —— Norm PgEn [290 8 : “i have been up to my elbows in blood” January–July 1864  Unlike other Civil War battlefields, Cold Harbor, Virginia, is a grim place, with few monuments. It is not a place the veterans wanted to remember. By the time the new general in chief of the army, Ulysses S. Grant, reached that desolate and oddly named place, men were dying in slaughterhouse numbers as he relentlessly pressed Lee’s army. Grant did not get what he wanted in the Overland Campaign and in early summer settled in to long-term trench warfare in front of Petersburg, Virginia. Lee won battles, but knew that Union forces were driving deeper into the Confederacy both east and west, that the South’s men and resources were destroyed and depleted, and that there was no longer any chance of foreign intervention. Chaplain Twichell counted the days until July, when the Excelsior Brigade’s term of service was up. 2nd Regt. Excelsior Brigade. Jan. 3rd 1864. Dear Ned, I feel it a real privilege to sit down tonight and address you. . . . I do not remember in a long time to have received such grateful tidings as the news of your illness abating. . . . 1864 has shown us a savage front. Day before yesterday was, I think, without exception the coldest day I ever saw in Virginia. I found it impossible to keep comfortable, especially at night. On the 1st, though the mud was bottomless and the more formidable because it was just stiffening, I managed to flounder to Brigade Division and Corps Headquarters with a party of fellow officers, and pay the due respects to authority, but it was as cheerless an act of courtesy as I ever performed. When I had completed the business my coat was fairly “nubby” with clots of mud that were thrown up by horses’ feet and froze in 290 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 [291] Lines —— 5.68 —— Norm PgEn [291] place. I celebrated the evening by writing to Sis. I had many mournful meditations that day for I could not forget that 1863 had brought great and sad changes with it to our house. The army has been deeply exercised for the last fortnight on the subject of re-enlistment. The plan has proved a great success. It is my impression that not less than 30,000 of this army alone have accepted the offer—and they are 30,000 worth thrice their number of recruits. Nearly half of our Brigade is mustered in anew—and about 80 of this regiment. It was a touching and glorious sight to see the war-worn remnant—so large a part of it—that has survived the slaughter, lift the right hand and, with uncovered head, swear to fight for three years more. It seemed to me the strongest insurance of success that had yet become manifest. The boys ask me every day if I will stay too, and I don’t know what to answer. I perceive that the Independent of the 31st has given a casual production of mine a much more prominent place° [than] it merited or aspired to. I sent it, partly to keep a promise I made Father once, and though Mr. [Theodore] Tilton acknowledged it in a very complimentary note, I thought to find it in some out of the way corner. In my private letter (of which an extract was also published in the two preceding numbers) I was as modest as a violet and hardly hinted that I expected it to be printed. Please send the paper to Sis. . . . the Independent of the 31st has given . . . a much more prominent place: Twichell had written a letter to this religious newspaper, edited by Theodore Tilton, praising its companionship through his 21Ⲑ2 years in the army: “My marching library has always been my Bible, Shakespeare . . . and the last Independent.” 2nd Regt. Excelsior Brigade. Sunday Evening. Jan. 10th 1864. Dear Mother The service is over, I have dined, and now until...

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