CHRISTMAS SEASON ON CAMPAIGN-PART 10 Wes, Nancy’s brother, was kilt at Sharpsburg. All of us in the Third had been through so much and to lose anybody after being in the regiment was hard to endure. All our friends and neighbors have slowly been taken away. When we first joined up, Nancy’s brother and I had been put in different …
CHRISTMAS SEASON ON CAMPAIGN-PART 9 We drill for about another 2 hours until the First Sergeant is hoarse from yelling commands and cussing the recruits for their clumsiness. Leaving the area we drilled in and moving back to our camp, we get with the recruits and tell them they are coming along just fine and not to worry about what …
CHRISTMAS SEASON ON CAMPAIGN-PART 8 Anyway we finally get issued some fat back and flour. Bill Jester carries the skillet for our mess this week so he starts to cook the fat back to get the grease to make the sleush. It is really hard to keep from just grabbing the fat back out of the pan and eating it, …
CHRISTMAS SEASON ON CAMPAIGN-PART 7 After drill and once back at camp we find all our tents had been moved to our campsite and we are required to set up our tents before we can get an issue of food. It takes us about an hour before we have the company street completed with all our tents up, our three …
CHRISTMAS SEASON ON CAMPAIGN-PART 6 Anyway we fall in for drill. Our company is down to about 30 men from the original amount of about 50. We line up in two ranks. The tall men are toward the front of the line and the short men are at the end of line. I am on the front rank and am …
CHRISTMAS SEASON ON CAMPAIGN-PART 5 The drums beat for roll call and all the ones that were sort of warm in the blankets start rolling out, putting on their brogans and standing in the ranks shivering, coughing and cussing. We find out we are going to have a damn drill since we got some new recruits and they need to …
CHRISTMAS SEASON ON CAMPAIGN-PART 4 As I said before, we marched from the Shenandoah Valley to Culpepper, VA. We made the march in about 7 days. The march was steady and we made good time. It didn’t rain much, thank the Lord, but it was cold at night. We had to move fast and arrived at Culpepper without our wagons, …
CHRISTMAS SEASON ON CAMPAIGN-PART 3 Anyway back to the weather, starting the last of October we were marched from around Martinsburg, VA over the Blue Ridge to around Culpepper, VA. The weather was beginning to get colder and up in the Blue Ridge it was downright coolish. Our feet were chaffed from the new shoes some of us had been …
CHRISTMAS SEASON ON CAMPAIGN-PART 2 We had a respite after Sharpsburg during October. The Yanks only followed us once and they paid for it from what we heard. After Sharpsburg we had crossed back into Virginia, the Yanks crossed over too, but A.P. Hill’s boys whipped em good and sent them scurrying back into Maryland. Like I said, we spent …
CHRISTMAS SEASON ON CAMPAIGN-PART 1 My feet are almost numb. I’ve dozed for what seems like a short time, but maybe it is longer than an hour. Yesterday we were issued bacon for the first time in days and some flour and made sleush, but we ate the last of it last night. Our supply lines have finally caught up …