you rote to me that you was as fat as a pig I am not fat but as pore as a snake we dont get anuf to eat #cw150

Aprile the 7 [1863]

Clinton tennesee

 Anderson co

Dier wife I take the presant opertunitey to inform you that I am not well I hav ben very sick sinc I hav ben hier at clinton but I am beter than i hav bin  I received your leter dated  26 of March which gave me grate satisfaction to hier that you was well you rote to me that you was as fat as a pig I am not fat but as pore as a snake we dont get anuf to eat we only draw quarter rashens I hav drawn 66 dolers more money I hav thout of my littel sweet a many a time sinc I hav bin sick and wanted to be with you  I had a pain in my wrist til I cold not li but it is about well i hope I will soon bewell

Direct your leters to  Anderson co clinton . po tennssee

I want you to rite all about your things I want to know how your horse is giting along and what  you air going to do with him this summer and I want to hier about your cattel and hogs is giting along you dont rite half anuf nor half often anuf I want you to rit every week and I will tri to rit every week it is all the satisfaction that I see is when i can hier from you and all the folks  John is not well he has got a very bad cof  Saeptey I want  you to git to be a good little gal for I dont now whether I shal ever see you any more or not for I am a long ways from you and in a sickley place and if I dont get to see you any more on erth I want  you to prepair to meet me and littel Slocum in heven So I  must bring my leter to a close by saying that I remain your affectinate  husben until deth .

D W Revis to

Sereptia S revis

Source: Daniel W. Revis Papers, North Carolina State Archives and as found on www.ncecho.org

Read Full Post »

An engagement has doubtless taken place at or near Washington; heavy cannonading was heard #cw150

News from Kinston

An engagement has doubtless taken place at or near Washington; heavy cannonading was heard in that direction all yesterday evening, and up to a late hour last night. Whether it was a picket skirmish with light artillery or a general engagement with the enemy I am not able to say.

Click to read about the  Battle of Washington, March 30 – April 19, 1863

Source: Fayetteville Observer, April 2, 1863 as found on www.ncecho.org

Read Full Post »

Increased flour prices because of speculators in Salisbury – prelude to Salisbury Bread Riot? #cw150

Speculation in Flour

The following is from the Salisbury Watchman of Monday:

It should concern the public to know the fact that the speculation in flour is assuming a serious aspect in this part of the State. We are informed on good authority that there is a man now in this region, with several thousand dollars in gold, and a very large amount in Confederate bills, purchasing flour with the view of sending it out of the State. The gold will doubtless be employed to depreciate the Confederate currency. Until within a few days past, flour could be had a $35 to $36 per barrel; but under the operations of the party referred to it has gone up to $42, as we are informed.

There is a good deal of produce finding its way out of the State on speculation account, principally by wagons across the country from Yadkin, Surry, Stokes and Davie until it reaches the Stateville and Charlotte Railroad – thence South.

Source: Greensborough Patriot, March 12, 1863 as found on www.ncecho.org

Read Full Post »

It was indeed melancholy to see men bleed and die but oh how exhilarating to see our cause triumph #cw150

Camp near Guinea Station

December 24, 1862

 

Dear Father

This is the 3^rd or 4^th line that I have written to you since I came to this army and not the first line have I rec’d in response. I need not tell you of our many toilsome and hard marches – cold and dreary camp – nights of sleeping in battle array – of all this you have doubtless heard something but might I not tell you something of real war – the historical descriptions of battles all are truly exciting and highly interesting but to see tens of thousands of veteran troops in open field in battle array – to hear with ones own ears the sharp crack of the skirmisher’s rifle – to see the flash and hear the tumultuous crash of artillery – to hear the peculiar whiz of a shell falling near your head – by no means the most musical sounds in nature and these I have both seen and heard in the battle of Fredericksburg. It was indeed melancholy to see men bleed and die but oh how exhilarating to see our cause triumph and to hear the shouts of our victorious troops. I was in better health and spirits during and since the fight that I have been since I came into the army. We had legs, arms, and fingers to cut & amputate. Saw many horribly mangled bodies but the blood…..

My colleague Dr. Bryan having resigned to get home and I having rec’d my Confederate appointment only a few weeks since I am left in charge of the regiment and therefore I see no prospect of getting to NC soon. Hence I send Jack who can leave the army when – while [I] can’t I would like exceedingly to have you pay us a visit but know how poor your chance. I am almost compelled to have several things from home. I start Jake the 24^th in care of brigade and shall expect him back here 11 days [torn] I rec’d a letter from Lizzie [torn] and suppose she is in Orange. Tell Ma to send my new lined pants, 2 prs. Of collars, wide shirts of [torn] and some woolen socks. I have [torn[ in Raleigh. Hatter Andrews promised to make me a hat to order. If you see him get and save it til I come. I want 1 gal of my brandy and one bottle of my wine. Would like some sausages and butter exceedingly since we never see anything of the kind. Some red pepper and an old blanket or coverlet. Lizzie has some at Orange if you could manage to send Jake by there. Jake has my chest key and can pack many things in it. Tell Ma to let Jake have a pr. of pants made from pile and also some socks and shirt if he needs it.

My love to all (in haste)

J.M. Hadley

Please see that Jake starts back in time to be here on the 11^th.

If Jake can bring them I would like some potatoes, apples, etc. We are still near Fredericksburg, Va. and I think likely to remain sometime through tis said the Yankees are falling back to winter quarters. Write by Jake and tell me all the news – Tell me where and how the boys are and when you heard from them.

Your affectionate son,

JMH

Source: Hadley Collection, Chatham County Historical Association.

Read Full Post »

Appeal to the Citizens and Patriots of North Carolina— in behalf of the Daughters of our deceased Soldiers #cw150

An Appeal to the Citizens and Patriots of North Carolina—We the undersigned ministers of the Eastern Conference of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of North Carolina, having been appointed a Committee for the purpose of publishing an Appeal in behalf of the Daughters of our deceased Soldiers, respectfully and earnestly ask your attention to the following:

1.      The above named Conference has in contemplation the erection of a Female Seminary, with a view to furnish the daughters of our deceased and disabled soldiers with a gratuitous education, including board and clothing, if needed.

2.      This institution is to be located at Louisville, Forsythe county, N. C., a remarkably healthy locality, where 20 acres of land, and 2000 dollars in cash have already been secured from two citizens of the place, to aid in the erection of the necessary buildings.

3.      In order to establish this enterprise on a sure and permanent basis, it is proposed to create in the outset a fund of 100,000 dollars, to be called “The Soldier’s Endowment fund,” the interest alone of which shall be expended in the education of the class of orphans referred to.  The board of Directors will be instructed to make from time to time such additions as the growing wants of the Institution may require.

4.      Besides the daughters of deceased and disabled soldiers, other young ladies may be admitted into the Seminary, at the discretion of the Board and Faculty; but all profits arising from their education will be added to the Endowment Fund.

5.      When the immediate object for which this Institution is planted, shall cease to exist, that is to say, when there shall no longer be any female orphans of deceased and disabled soldiers to educate, then the Board will admit upon its bounty, so many indigent female orphans generally as can be sustained by the fund.

6.      Application will be made to the next Legislature of our State for a Charter, to enable the Board to carry the above plan into execution as speedily as possible.

7.      The course of instruction to be pursued in the Institution, will embrace all the branches usually taught in the best Female Seminaries of the State, it being deemed desirable, that as regards education, the poor orphans of our noble soldiers should enjoy equal advantages with the greatest and richest in the land.

8.      Although this Institution will be planted under the auspices of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of this State, it will by no means be sectarian in its character, as the Board of Directors will be composed of members of different denominations, and the pupils will be selected indiscriminately from among the families of deceased and disabled soldiers, without regard to religious creeds.

9.      In order that all may have an opportunity to aid in this benevolent enterprise, our agents, J. D. Scheck, of Guilford, N. C., and Rev. J. H. Mengert of Wilmington, N. C., are hereby authorized to call upon those citizens of our Commonwealth, who are still at their homes and to receive from them in cash or bonds such donations and subscriptions, as their patriotic liberality may prompt them to give.  They are also instructed to procure, if practicable, permission from the proper authorities to visit our soldiers now in camp, or in the field and to receive from them such contributions as they are willing and able to make.  The names of contributors and their residences, or in the case of soldiers, the Regiments and Companies in which they served, will be carefully recorded in a blank book kept for that purpose, and placed in the archives of the Institution.

10.  With a view of keeping this enterprise prominently before the public, and enlisting the sympathies of all classes in its behalf, our agents will from time to time publish the amounts collected, in the principal papers in the State.

And now, Fellow Citizens, we appeal to you, and hope to have your hearty co-operation in this good work.  We are under lasting obligations to the noble defenders of our soil.  When they left their homes, their wives and their children, to arrest the progress of an invading foe on the bloody battlefield, they did so in the sure expectation that, if they should never return to their loved ones, the protecting and fostering care of a grateful country would be extended over them.  By this hope they have been sustained amidst the arduous duties, the many privations, and the great sufferings of a soldier’s life; by it they have been supported in the hour of death.  Patriotism, not to say Christianity, would dictate that in this they should not be disappointed.  The great Founder of Christianity has said: “The Poor ye have always with you,” and in the brief history of our Confederacy we have been forcibly reminded of this momentous truth.  We are all aware of the alarming destitution, to which many of the families of our soldiers have been reduced, without any possible means for intellectual improvement; yet we should all feel that if any indigent children in our State are entitled to receive the highest mental culture, it is the offspring of those who have stood as a wall of fire between us and our enemies.  For them, and for them exclusively, we wish to endow an Institution, in which their wants will be met and in which they will be prepared to occupy respectable positions in society.

Our appeal is directed especially to the ladies.  It has fallen to the lot of their sex to mould the destinies of nations.  Of this fact many striking illustrations are afforded by the past.  And when the history of our present national struggle shall have been written, it will appear to the world, that for our independence as a nation, we are in a great measure indebted to the pure patriotism of our ladies.  To them, therefore, we especially appeal, to come forward and aid us in building up an Institution, in which a destitute portion of their sex shall receive that intellectual and moral training which will enable them to follow their noble example.  Our Confederacy is yet in its infancy.  As its history progresses, we may require other bands of Spartan fathers and sons to be cheered on to deeds of valor by Spartan mothers and daughters.  If we devise means to raise the latter, we shall never lack the former; and our Confederacy will then occupy that lofty position among the nations of the earth, to which it is so justly entitled.

REV. BRYANT J. HALL

REV. JAMES R. SIKES

Source: The Greensborough Patriot, September 18, 1862 as found in Confederate Newspaper Project

Read Full Post »

Advertisement for photographs in Fayetteville of all types, small to life size July 3, 1862 #cw160

ART
Woodward’s Solar Camera.
Photographs can be had at Vanorsdell’s Skylight Gallery, Hay Street, opposite Marble Yard, Fayetteville, N.C. Plain, retouched, colored, in water colors, oil and pastile, from small to life size.  Ambrotypes, Melaneotypes, and all other styles of Pictures pertaining to the Art. Also, Gilt Frames, Gilt Mouldings, [Glass] for very large pictures – as large as 26 by 36 inches.  Cord and Tassels for hanging pictures; Instruments, Stock and Chemicals for sale low for cash. Life size colored Photographs made from small pictures.
Having permanently located here I hope to merit your patronages. I would also return my sincere thanks for the liberal patronage bestowed on me heretofore by the good people of Fayetteville and vicinity.
C.M. Vanorsdell
Photographer and proprietor

Source: Fayetteville Observer, July 7, 1862 as found in www.digitalnc.org

Read Full Post »

Statistics of the war #civilwar150

We always talk about North Carolina’s contributions to the war and the numbers of men who enlisted and died from our state.  An interesting set of statistics were recently published on the website of the Civil War Trust.  Historians are compiling new records of the casualties of the war so the numbers may change here and there but the sheer magnitude of our losses across the country, Blue or Grey, are still amazing.  If we were to lose a proportionate number of men today, it would equal 6 million!

Read our NC Civil War 150 “Death Study” article on our Department’s research.

The Battle of Antietam reigns as our country’s single bloodiest day but it’s interesting to see that the second bloodiest day was 9/11 –a day of sadness that many of us remember well.

Reflect on what you felt on 9/11 and then ratchet it up to consider the fears, losses, and depression facing our Civil War predecessors……

 

Read Full Post »

Never was there such a series of severe combats, each a bloody battle; never such a retreat, never such an attack. #cw150

July 4, 1862

No connection with the mail train at Weldon which cruelly disappoints us.  Mary had an old letter from Col Clark written on Sat.  He had been engaged the evening before & escaped unhurt.  Thank God that Patrick, my hope, my stay, my all, is not exposed to these murderous bullets!  The loss fearful.  God help the wounded & dying.  Father sent back to Halifax to see if it was not possible to get a paper by the evening train & happily succeeded.  Late at night came Philip with two & we sat up until long after twelve poring over their bad poring & half effaced type.

We are still victorious.  The retreat goes steadily on.  Squads of stragglers fill the whole country & even swim the James when our Pickets capture & carry them to the Army at Drury’s Bluff.  At one place we came to several tons of Ice abandoned by them—think of their being able to carry such a Luxury when we fancied they were suffering for the necessaries of life!  Thousands of Waggons are collected at Berkeley; it is supposed to be protected by the Shells of the Gun boats in the river.  Thirty transports are there, whether to reinforce or carry off McClellan’s army, we cannot tell.  Thousands of his wounded are left behind him, he commending them to the kindness of Gen Lee.  The barbarities they commit are enormous.  At one place we found three Georgians hanging & the bodies of several Alabamians horribly mutilated.  The small arms captured are innumerable, besides a large quantity of Ammunition both fixed & loose.

Mr James Bruce, poor man, has lost a son.  He has already been so very unfortunate, in losing three children within the past few years by disease, that I hoped War might spare him.  Col Gaston Meares killed & Major De Rosset, Mr E’s rival in the militia Law, reported among the missing.  Poor fellows, how I sympathize with their families.  Col Mat Ransome, our neighbor, made a brilliant charge on an entrenched Battery& took it in the handsomest style, getting, however, two severe wounds.  Col Clarke was engaged on Tuesday at the same time, his regt being in the same Brigade as Col Mat Ransom’s and Col Ramsour’s—& as their wounds are reported and no mention made of Clark—we suppose he escaped.

The enemy are crowded upon the James between City Point and Berkely Curl’s Neck, Mr Allen’s estate, and Shirley, Mr Hill Carter’s, have been over run with the enemy; Curl’s Neck the scene of desperate fighting, but they have been driven beyond it.  The prisoners, of whom 7,000 were brought in in one day, represent their suffering as extreme.  They say that were they not surrounded by water & hemmed in by our troops McClellan could not keep them together, they would disband with a “sauve qui peut” and return home.  The famous 7th Regt New Yorkers has been, to our delight, engaged & worsted, as we learn from some prisoners taken from it.  They will now see Richmond in another phase.  To the Hospitable, one in which she scarce two years ago entertained them, it is now the Hospital phase.  Would that they could all be confined in the hall where they were feasted! & left to a calm comparison of then & now.  Today is the 9th since the first battle was fought.  Never was there such a series of severe combats, each a bloody battle; never such a retreat, never such an attack.  What a scene for the Majesty of Heaven to look down upon!  Man whom he created “in His own Image,” to be happy, tearing, rending, destroying one the other.

There is news from Vicksburg & N O, but I have no heart for it.  Fighting at Vickburg, but nothing decisive as yet, & that brute Butler embroiling himself with the foreign Consuel.  His day is almost run.  Now that the English papers & Parliament itself denounces him as a disgrace to the Anglo Saxon blood, the North feebly follow in their wake and deprecate his Infamous Order; but it is too late—we see the reason.

Source: Edmondston, Catherine Ann Devereux, 1823-1875, Journal of a Secesh Lady: The Diary of Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston 1860-1866. Crabtree, Beth G and Patton, James W., (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1979). http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net/478.html

 

Read Full Post »

Ambrotype of Corporal Newton A. Branch

We have read several letters and diaries in which soldiers and their ladies discuss having their “type” made. 

This ambrotype of Newton Branch, Company D, 6th Regiment NC State Troops is found in the North Carolina Museum of History. 

The process of making a tintype and an ambrotype are similar and both were popular in North Carolina at the time of the war.

 

Source: North Carolina Museum of History accession number 1987.3.1.  Search the Collections of North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.

 

Read Full Post »

A brief pause for Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day to those who read and follow CivilianWartime!  As we go about remembering our war dead, pause for a second and recall the experiences of those whose words are remembered in this blog.  Men, women, and children – much like us- thrown into a set of experiences that no one thought would last longer than a few months.  May 1862, war has been declared for over a year now, many men have come home in boxes (if they came home at all) while others are permanently scarred – physically and mentally.  Now, with hindsight, we know the full scope of the war’s toll on our country, the difficult progression of events that will lead to the war’s end, and the struggles ahead to reunite north and south.  Continue to read these “words of history” and imagine if you would have the strength and fortitude to fight a war that you didn’t start, step into leadership roles you didn’t want, and live without luxuries such as coffee, sugar, salt, flour, and candles as the war progresses.

Read Full Post »