Civil War studies normally focus on military battles, campaigns, generals and politicians, with the common Confederate soldiers and Southern civilians receiving only token mention. Using personal accounts from more than two hundred forty soldiers, farmers, clerks, nurses, sailors, farm girls, merchants, surgeons, chaplains and wives, author Jeff Toalson has created a compilation that is remarkable in its simplicity and stunning in its scope. These soldiers and civilians wrote remarkable letters and kept astonishing diaries and journals. They discuss disease, slavery, inflation, religion, desertion, blockade running, and their never-ending hope that the war would end before their loved ones died. A major portion of these documents were unpublished and were made available by the Brewer Library of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. With this, his third significant contribution to Civil War literature, Jeff Toalson joins the select company of Thomas W. Cutrer and Bell I. Wiley as historians who have devoted their body of work to preserving the 'voices' of common Confederate soldiers and civilians.
Mama, I Am Yet Still Alive
A Composite Diary of 1863 in the ConfederacyiUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2012 Jeff Toalson
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4697-5316-4Contents
Introduction...................................ixEditor's Notes.................................xiiiJanuary, 1863..................................1February, 1863.................................39March, 1863....................................71April, 1863....................................101May, 1863......................................133June, 1863.....................................169July, 1863.....................................203August, 1863...................................241September, 1863................................277October, 1863..................................307November, 1863.................................335December, 1863.................................363Postscript.....................................393Acknowledgements...............................395Notes..........................................397Sources........................................425Index – Biographical.....................435Command........................................440General Subject................................444
Chapter One
January, 1863
As the cold New Year dawns on the Murfreesboro battlefield, the temperatures are below freezing and frost is on the clothing of the wounded and dead Union and Confederate soldiers. Captain Robert Smith of the 2nd Tennessee Infantry writes, "Last night was very cold, and many a wounded soldier was frozen to death this morning." The battle at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, ends the fighting of 1862 and is the opening battle of 1863.
1862, at times, seemed to offer great hope to the Confederate cause. They still held Vicksburg, Chattanooga and Richmond. Their armies had achieved quite a few military successes. Grant had been turned back at Chickasaw Bluffs, Burnside had been defeated at Fredericksburg, and Bragg had pounded the Union army on the last day of the year at Murfreesboro. 1863 will be the critical year for the Confederacy in its quest to achieve independence.
On January 1st General Magruder recaptures the city and port of Galveston for the Confederacy. It will remain an open Confederate port for the balance of the conflict and provide blockade runners a port for delivering supplies to the Trans-Mississippi area of Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana.
Arkansas Post, 40 miles up the Arkansas River from the Mississippi River, surrenders to Union forces on January 11th with the loss of 4,791 men and significant quantities of weapons, stores and munitions.
Mr. D. A. St. Clair, proprietor and editor of the Wytheville Dispatch, informs his readers on January 13th of the sinking of the USS Monitor off Cape Hatteras, "The famous Ercission [Ericsson] iron-clad steamer, called the Monitor, has fought her last fight.... she put to sea the other day to measure strength with Old Neptune, who brought one of his fierce Hatteras ruffies to bear upon her and ... she had to give up the ghost. Down she went ... into Davy Jone's Locker, and with her went down 32 [16] of her crew...."
On January 20th General Burnside attempts to turn General Lee's left flank in what becomes the infamous "Mud March." By the 24th the Union forces are back in their camps facing Lee across the Rappahannock. On January 25th General Hooker replaces General Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac.
Inflation has reduced the value of the Confederate dollar to about 35 cents versus the U. S. Dollar. Prices of many staples have risen sharply and key items such as salt and cotton cards are becoming not only more expensive but more difficult to obtain.
Lt. Theophilus Perry of the 28th Texas Cavalry writes his wife from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, "My life is miserable on account of our separation. Oh God! that, this War would close, and all could return to our homes & families." His is a universal sentiment that is shared by soldiers in butternut and in blue.
January, 1863
January 1, 1863 Captain Robert D. Smith Murfreesboro, Tennessee Co. B – 2nd Tennessee Infantry
"The new year opened this morning ... Last night was very cold, and many a wounded soldier was frozen to death this morning.... Last night our troops took all the wounded with in reach and laid them in rows on the ground, both friend and foe ... They made fires between each row to prevent the poor fellows from freezing ... our troops kept up the fires all night."
* * *
January 1, 1863 Private Theodore F. Harris Murfreesboro, Tennessee Co. C – 8th Tennessee Infantry
"We ... fought the battle of Murfreesboro.... I can scarcly picture our hard ships up to this time. Provisions was scarce and bear [bare] for clothing. Some of us went along without shoes feet bleeding suffering from cold etc. In this engagement at Murfreesboro our Regiment went in with 600 men come out with 200, we sustained a heavy loss charging a battery across an open field, but we captured the battery alright, of course Bragg lost. Nothing more could be expected of Mr. Know all ..."
* * *
January 1, 1863 Private W. E. Preston Murfreesboro, Tennessee Co. G – 33rd Alabama Infantry
"The burning of inferior powder caused our guns to choke and I think all had exchanged their Enfields for Springfields on the battle fields ... We had also exchanged our cedar canteen [for] block tin, oval shaped Yankee canteen and those who [had] not picked up a U. S. blanket, good black hat, blue overcoats or shelter tent could usually buy cheap ... of men who had more than one."
* * *
January 1, 1863 Private Nimrod Newton Nash Fredericksburg, Virginia Co. I – 13th Mississippi Infantry
"Dear Mollie
... We are going on piquet again to night.... have had a dull Christmast except one day we got plenty of apple brandy at thirty dollars pr gallon.... Some think [Longstreet] is going to give the most deserving furloughs - ... if that is so your man will come in for one; now wont that bee fine for me to come home and see your big fat self. If you are smoking I wont stay with you long as light ... Newton"
* * *
January 1, 1863 Mrs. Catherine Edmondston Halifax County, North Carolina Farm wife
"... I indulged in the now unwanted luxury of a Pudding, for with sugar at 87 ½ to $100 a lb, and with so many calls upon us as we have, I do not think it is right to visit the sugar barrel every day ..."
* * *
January 1, 1863 Mr. R. S. Norton Rome, Georgia Merchant
"This is the day President Lincoln says the Negroes shall be free. Everything is quiet, the hireing of servants going on, and at an advance of full 25% over last year ..."
* * *
January 1, 1863 Corporal James Kibler Camp near Fredericksburg, Virginia Co. F – 10th Virginia Infantry
"we Were Paid off yesterday. The confederacy paid us off, up to the Very Day. They owed us for two Month. I Drew $26.00. I think I shall send [home] some twenty Dollars."
* * *
January 2, 1863 1st...
