USA > Virginia > Under the stars and bars ; a history of the Surry Light Artillery > Part 2
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From this point onward to the close, I will use the letters written home to a friend during the progress of
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the war, only supplementing them with such notes and remarks as may appear necessary, in elucidation and connection of the general record. In every case, the notes and additions are designated by the brackets.
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LETTER FIRST.
Company attached to 3d Virginia Infantry-Drilling with the Regiment-Murmurs of the men-Guard duty-Vandalism- Hucksters-Note.
CAMP COOK, VA.,
August 15, 1861.
My Dear Friend :- I did not write to you from Smithfield, as I had promised, because our time there was so constantly occupied with a series of pleasant rounds, and with the oft-recurring drills-drills by squad, drills by section, drills by company. Fresh troops, you may well suppose, need a deal of drilling.
I expected, too, to have been permitted to see you in person ere this time. But we begin already to dis- cover that a private soldier cannot go and come at will, but must secure a "permit," or a "furlough," and travel, like a slave, with a pass in his pocket.
But here we are at Camp Cook, immediately on the lower James river, in open view of Newport News Point, and the Federal fleet lying off there, and near the famous oyster-beds, or shoals, known so well, and valued so highly by our forefathers for generations agone. O course, we expect to enjoy the delectable bi- valves, when the season for them opens.
We are now attached, as Company I, to the 3d Virginia Regiment of Infantry, Col. Roger A. Pryor
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commanding. Having received no cannon as yet, we have been furnished with muskets, and are required to drill with the Regiment, besides doing infantry drill by company.
Some of the men murmur a good deal at having to perform infantry duty, saying they enlisted for the artillery service. The officers, however, tell them it is only a temporary arrangement, and that the cannon will soon be here for our use. But the men shake their heads, and declare it is only a ruse to lure us piece- meal into the net, and fasten us to the infantry service for the war. I do not know. I begin already to feel attached to the men of the other Companies, many of whom are very clever fellows, and should it so result, I, for one, will not hesitate to go with the Regiment wherever duty calls. It is a fine body of men, ably officered, and full of the esprit de corps. I doubt not, when the hour of trial comes, that they will give a good account of themselves.
Besides the constant drilling, we have to do guard duty with the Regiment, both at Camp and down at Day's Point, two miles below us, where there is a picket outpost. Each Company sends two men daily, and the Surry Cavalry, Captain Taylor's Company, supplies a detail of four horsemen, for vedettes.
While on the outpost the other night, I was witness to a scene of vandalism that, they tell me, is of frequent occurrence on the other side of the river. The view
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across the river to the country about Big Bethel is un- obstructed, and a large fire over there at night is readily seen from this side. Many of the family resi- dences, barns, and other buildings within reach of the Federal army, are being burned, and the owners thus made refugees. Thus our foes adopt this method to cripple and weaken the Southern people. Such van- dalism as this is worthy of barbarian hordes, rather than of a civilized people.
There are crowds of hucksters here every day, with vegetables, fruits, chickens, eggs, etc., to sell to the soldiers, and they carry away a deal of money, for they are liberally patronized, although the regular rations furnished us are plentiful and good. But those who have money spend it freely, and melons, fruits, and eggs are consumed in great quantities by the men.
Time passes lightly, and we are getting used to drilling, and guard duty, and life in camp. These cloth houses are fairly good residences, and it is so easy to change them from one place to another. And there is need for so little furniture! or rather there is no room for it! We sleep and sit on the ground, with only some straw under us.
May peace and good health attend you, and hover over all the homes of the land.
Your friend, B.
[The 3d Regiment, as constituted at this time, was composed of companies from the cities of Norfolk,
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Portsmouth and Petersburg, and the counties of Nor- folk, Nansemond, Southampton, Isle of Wight and Din- widdie. It was a fine organization, and subsequently performed its full share of active service in the Army of Northern Virginia, from the battle of Williamsburg, May, 1862, to Sailors' Creek, in 1865. In more than a hundred hard-fought battles, it gave freely of its blood and valor to the Southern cause. Its history is linked forever with that of the Army of Northern Virginia, and with the names of the immortal Lee, of Longstreet, and of Pickett.
In regard to the destruction of the private property of the South, alluded to in the above letter, the future historian who may care to know anything of the deep spirit of hate and oppression toward the Southern peo- ple, that animated our foes in this war, may here learn how, from the very beginning of the struggle, they carried the torch and flame wherever they went-may learn how mills, barns, fences, princely residences, fur- niture, books, pictures, statuary, sacred mementoes, were burned; how the owners, oftentimes aged men and women, were forced to forsake their homes, and endure poverty, self-denial, and want in the interior districts. Wherever a Federal band crossed the land, its pathway was marked, like the track of the snail by its slime, by blackened ruins and the ashes of desolation! Can any old Veteran forget these things, or cease to speak of them ? It was a sorry way to "whip us back into the Union," as they pretended to be doing. ]
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LETTER SECOND.
An invasion of measles-Recruits-Two cannon-Sergeant Bloxam and his hard drilling-Soldierly pluck-Note.
CAMP COOK, VA., Sept. 20, 1861.
My Dear Friend :- Our Company has had quite a visitation recently in the way of measles, a perfect in- vasion of it. Almost every man in the Company has had it, myself one of the last to take it-a well-defined case, the doctor said. It has put me off duty for a good long time-21 days, according to the regulations, and I am free from drill and guard duty now.
We are having quite an increase of new men to our ranks, recruits from Surry county, from Isle of Wight, and from other places. Several of them are from the Mill Swamp neighborhood. As a result of these ad- ditions, our officers are kept busy drilling the new men, preparatory to Company and Regimental drill. It is a part of the service that a soldier has to learn.
And we have had two old cannons given us, for prac- tice, and the whole Company is being put through a course of artillery tactics, in addition to our other duties. Thus we are doing double duty, as it were, by serving in the regimental duties, and also at the guns.
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In the latter case we are under the tuition of Sergeant Bloxam, of the Portsmouth Company, who has seen service in the United States Army, and who drills us with vim and zeal.
The guns are smooth-bore, six-pounders, of ancient manufacture, appearing as if they might have done service in Revolutionary times. In actual service, they could not be very effective, except at short range. In- stead of horses, of which we have none as yet, we are required to move the guns about by hand over the field, to front and to rear, en echelon and in line, to sponge and load and fire in mimic warfare, until our arms ache, and we long for rest.
But Bloxam does not rest. He is relentless. He says the Colonel has told him to drill us thoroughly, and he means to do it. In fact, we suspect that Colonel Pryor is at the bottom of it all. He wants us for the infantry service, and thinks to put us out with artillery by this hard drilling. But we do not take well to in- fantry tactics. We blunder awfully in every parade, and, I believe, have become the common butt of the Regiment, in consequence of our many mistakes.
No doubt, to spectators it must be a little bit amusing to see us at the old guns, moving them around by main force and awkwardness, until there is little but monotony and disgust in it. But the boys will not give in. They insist on being trained as artillerymen, and learning all there is in it. We are born artillerymen-we are!
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Come down and see us at the fun. It will please you to see hove plucky the boys are, and will never cry out, "Hold! enough of artillery for us." It will re- quire more than one Bloxam, or one Pryor either, to beat us out of this idea.
Good-by. God be with and bless you all. Your friend, B.
[In fancy I look back over the fast evanishing years, and behold us all, Sergeant Bloxam in charge, Cor- poral B. T. Jones at the trail, Whitfield Goodrich hold- ing the post of number 2, James Moody number 3, William Clayton number 4, myself as number 1-see us all as we march and countermarch, load "by detail," and "fire" by word of mouth, and then load and fire again, and so on, and so out, in those far-off autumn days, in that school of stern discipline by the James. What a time we had! What lessons we learned ! What old Veteran does not recall the hard training of his early camp life, often under the command of men who were but little better than pig-headed martinets, re- garding the private soldier as but a piece of putty, to be shaped into any form that might please them. How- ever, not overmuch of this fell to our lot, and perhaps we had no great reason to complain of our early train- ing masters. At any rate, we stuck to those two old guns, sorry as they were. They served to drill with as good as the best, and we subsequently came to prize them more highly.
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Dear Whitfield ! the comrade mentioned in the let- ter above. A kind, gentle, good-hearted man. He tar- ried with us but a few short months. He died during the winter, the first of our Company to give his life a sacrifice to the cause of the South. He fell a prey to pneumonia at Camp Pemberton, March 10, 1862. His remains, attended by an escort from the Company, were sent home for interment.]
"And o'er the graves of comrades gone Our hearts will turn to weep, And round their names the ivy wreath Of living green we'll keep."
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LETTER THIRD.
. Winter quarters-Two more guns-Life in camp-Gambling- Note.
CAMP PEMBERTON, VA.,
Dec. 10, 1861.
My Dear Friend :- We, that is the whole Regiment, are in winter quarters now, good and comfortable log cabins, built by the men, the several Companies each by itself, all arranged around three sides of a large square, or campus, the quarters of the Regimental of- fieers occupying the fourth side. In the open space within, which has been cleared of all debris, the Regi- mental and Company roll-calls take place, and squad drills of new recruits are conducted. Here we expect to remain through the winter. The new camp is but a short distance from the old one, and there is plenty of wood for fires nearby.
And we have received two more cannon, and horses enough for the four guns. The men are divided now into two classes, cannoneers and drivers, the latter hav- ing charge of the horses, and the cannoneers working the guns. We regard ourselves as on rising ground now, and have been excused from infantry drill al- together, of which favor we are immensely proud. And, thanks to the untiring efforts of Sergeant Bloxam, we
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are becoming quite expert in the artillery tactics, so that our own officers will drill us in future.
We drill twice daily in battery, and have recently done some sure enough practice at loading and firing. The Colonel wanted to see if our gunners could hit the broad side of a house, about half a mile off, and ban- tered the gunners beforehand, that, "he would be bound every one of them would miss it, clear and clean." But no. Four big holes were soon made in the side of that edifice. And if the owner ever received any compensa- tion for the damage done, Colonel Pryor had it to pay. He said the gunners did better than he expected of them.
I have not told you much of the inner scenes of camp life, the life of the soldier when off duty. Well, the men get up all sorts of sports-ball, marbles, leaping, running, etc., etc. Anything serves to break the mo- notony of confinement. The more intellectual of the men spend much time in reading. And the few re- ligious ones get together and sing a good deal. There are quite a number here who have good voices, and the twilight hour, and early darkness before taps, is gen- erally enlivened with song.
But I must say that many, too many, of this Com- pany, both privates and officers, seem to prefer other amusements of a less intellectual or spiritual nature. Card-playing is fearfully common, and the men gamble for money, too. Gambling debts are eating up the
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men's wages, instead of going for better things, or for their families at home. It is a great evil, and ought to be forbidden. The morals, as well as the comfort and welfare of the men demand it. Yet I am glad to say we have in our Company some good, pious and God-fearing men, who take no part in encouraging the gambling evil; and these, I trust, like the lump of leaven in the general mass, will exert a salutary and saving influence over the others.
General Huger, who has command on this side of the James, with headquarters at Norfolk, has been around recently on a tour of inspection, and has paid a visit to the 3d Regiment. He is from South Carolina, a scion of an old Huguenot family, and, of course, of French descent. He does not look a bit like a "fire- eater," as the South Carolinians are supposed to be, but a staid, even-tempered, kindly man. I like him. The name is pronounced Hu-gee.
There is an absolute dearth of news from the military field, and I close with a prayer for your continued peace and safety.
Your friend, B.
[The first winter of the S. L. A. in camp passed quietly by. Nothing beyond the common routine of duties occurred to vary the usual sameness. We were very comfortably fixed, rations continued good and
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plentiful, there was little sickness, the Company was fairly well drilled by this time, and the moral tone of the organization, and good feeling for each other among the men generally, were excellent.
The following recruits had joined us during the summer and fall of 1861, thus, in addition to the 54 men of the original Company, making our number at the close of 1861 to be 77, rank and file: John W. Barlow and Josiah Bell, from Isle of Wight county ; J. Thomas Brown, A. Nicholas Brown, J. Decatur Edwards, and James Gay, from Surry county; Josiah Gwaltney, from Isle of Wight; Joseph Glover, George M. Hargrave, Zechariah Holland, and Joseph R. Kea, from Surry; Luther J. Little, from Isle of Wight; Samuel A. Moody, George W. Moody, William R. Math- ews, Richard Moring, John T. Nelms, Joseph T. Price, Charles A. Price, Gilbert W. Rogers, and John Underwood, from Surry; and Servetus M. Williams and Edward W. Wright, also from Surry county. Total, 23.]
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LETTER FOURTH.
A mild winter-Life in camp-Active operations expected- Other troops-A soldier's burial-Rations-Note. .
CAMP PEMBERTON, VA., February 10, 1862.
My Dear Friend :- The winter, which, as you know, has been a mild one, with but little of snow, has passed by without anything occurring to disturb the ordinary routine of camp life. There has been very little sick- ness among our men, but more, perhaps, among the other Companies of the Regiment, and the daily drills with our guns are more of a pleasure than a task with us now. The guard duty is reasonably light, though the requirements are strict, and there are seldom any burdensome details for forage or wood. The pious members of the Company, and any others who admire vocal music, assemble nightly for singing, and angry brawls among the men are of rare occurrence. The entire Regiment seems composed mainly of moral and orderly men. Though we have no chaplain, and no place of preaching nearby, the men read the Bible among themselves, and sometimes hold social prayer together. The religious and moral spirit of this com- mand is regarded as excellent.
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But matters seem shaping themselves for active operations, and the spring campaign is expected to open early. The armies on the Peninsula are astir, though it is yet winter, and fighting may occur at some point very soon. On this side of the James, troops are being concentrated all the way from Smithfield to Suf- folk, and it is rumored that fighting has commenced in North Carolina about Roanoke Island. The Blues (Isle of Wight) yet occupy Fort Boykin on the James, where they have been all the winter; and there are forces at Harding's Bluff and numerous other fortified points along the James, both above and below Fort Boykin-Red Point, Pig Point, Barret's Point, and various other "points" and places-where we are said to have heavy guns and resolute men, ready to drive back the invader, whenever he ventures to come, though with all of the panoply of war he be guarded and de- fended.
Our camp has lately been the scene of a soldier's burial. A new Company (Captain Tutt's) that came here the latter part of the summer from Halifax county, having lost one of its men by sickness, the remains were interred in military style near the camp. A detach- ment of the Company followed the pall-bearers with reversed arms, the regimental music played the funeral march, and, after the grave was filled, the detachment discharged their guns over the mound, and then turned away and left the early-fallen soldier to his rest. It was a solemn and affecting scene.
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Rations continue plentiful and good-flour, bacon or beef, sugar, coffee, and sometimes rice. Nearly every mess of eight or ten men has a negro man for cook. Coffee is made in large camp kettles holding several gallons, and it would astonish you to see what quantities of it the men drink. Strong coffee, liberally sweetened, is the favorite beverage here, and it goes well and does good when one is just off guard duty these cold mornings. I will not say it is the only bev- erage drank here, for there is a sutler's shop here, where cider and beer are sold, and the men get frequent "permits" to visit Smithfield, four miles from our camp.
Read Numbers 6: 24-27, and think of,
Your friend, B.
[The allusion to beverages, at the close of this letter, reminds me to say, that the restrictions on the sale of intoxicants in the town of Smithfield and the country around, were not as rigid during those times, as, per- haps, they should have been, considering the large bodies of soldiers stationed at different points nearby. Brandy was frequently brought into the camp. As a conse- quence of this liberty, a good many men found them= selves at times doing double duty, or maybe under- going some sterner punishment for breech of military order -- some of the S. L. A. among the rest. Yet, as a rule, our Company passed this ordeal creditably. Composed of some of the best material, morally, of the respective neighborhoods from which they sprang, the
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men of the S. L. A. were never much addicted to the vice of drinking. In large part, they were the pious sons of pious and God-fearing men, and their conduct served to check dissipation and disorder among the rest.]
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LETTER FIFTH.
The campaign opened-Confederate reverses-Naval battle in Hampton Roads-Departure of the 3d Regiment, and other forces-Camp "Destruction"-Transfers-On the march- Note.
BEN'S CHURCH, VA., May 2, 1862.
My Dear Friend :- As was expected when I last wrote to you, the military campaign of 1862 has started early, not only here in Virginia, but at the West also where our forces have sustained some severe re- verses in Kentucky, and at Forts Henry and Donelson, both of which places have been captured by the enemy. In Carolina, also, on February 8th, the Federals suc- ceeded in taking Roanoke Island, with the supplies and garrison there, thus opening the way for an attack upon Suffolk and Norfolk from that direction.
To offset these reverses, we have the brilliant naval victory in Hampton Roads to cheer us. On March 8th, our new ironclad, the Merrimac, that had been quietly under construction all of last summer, dashed out from Norfolk toward Newport News, attacked the Federal fleet lying off there, destroyed two of their boats in quick succession, and created great commotion in the Federal Army near the scene. The fight was renewed the next day between the Merrimac and the Monitor,
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also an iron-plated vessel, and the strongest, it is said, in the Federal navy. The extent of the damage on either side is not yet known with us here.
The 3d Regiment has gone across the river, taking the Blues from Fort Boykin, thus leaving those works entirely unoccupied for the time being. Our army on the Peninsula is concentrating near Williamsburg, and Gen. Joseph E. Johnston has assumed command. Most of the infantry forces on this side have also been with- drawn, and a battle is expected over there soon.
Our Company broke camp nearly a month ago, and went first into a "eamp of instruction," so designated, but the boys dubbed it "camp destruction," on account of the cold and wet weather and miserable time that we had. Our men suffered greatly, after being so com- fortably fixed all winter, and a good deal of siekness has resulted from it.
It was while we were deepest in the mud at the afore- said camp, down at Riddick's farm, near Suffolk, that several of our men received their transfers, which they had been looking for anxiously for sometime, and six of them have left us to join the Surry Cavalry. It is needless to say that the said men were highly elated at the event, and they thought they had the laugh on the rest of us. But we told them to wait and see. Some- times "he laughs best who laughs last," and it may re- sult this way in this case. The names of these boys were William A. Clayton, G. A. Rowell, B. T. Jones,
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E. S. Spratley, R. C. Thompson, E. R. Bell; all good and efficient men, which our Company can ill afford to lose.
From the mud near Suffolk, we were ordered first, to Barret's Point, which had been vacated by its former garrison, and which appeared to us a most excellent place to be captured in. Fortunately, no doubt, we were soon withdrawn from that trap, and we are now at the winter quarters lately occupied by the Southampton Cavalry, near Ben's Church, and also near the old Colonial church, known as St. Luke's, now in ruins, Our stay here will be brief, and I cannot surmise from what place I may address you next time.
Before I close, let me tell you of the sudden death of one of the men, Thomas J. Rowell, whom you knew. Tom was apparently well only the day before, was cheer- ful and talkative, and no one thought that death was so near him. But on the next morning he was stricken with something like a congestive chill, and died before noon. His remains were sent home under charge of a detachment from the Company. Thus we have lost two men by sickness within a very few weeks. Others of the Company are sick in hospital, or at home.
Peace be with you, and health and safety.
Your friend, B.
[All the men named above as having procured trans- fers, served efficiently in the 13th Virginia Cavalry,
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General Fitz Lee's command, and all lived to reach home again at the close of the war. They saw a good deal of hard service and fighting, and those of them who are yet living could tell many interesting stories of their adventures and escapes. Clayton served use- fully for a time as scout, a difficult and dangerous duty. He received a severe wound, from which he never fully recovered, and died a year or two after the close of the war. Spratley was shot through the body, but re- covered, and is still living (1909) at Surry Courthouse. The other four of the men, I believe, escaped without wounds, and returned to become useful citizens. Of these, E. R. Bell died at his home in Isle of Wight, in December, 1905. B. T. Jones died at his home in Surry, February 9, 1908; Thompson and Rowell are yet living, the last having been, for a long time, a great sufferer from paralysis. George A. Rowell died at his home in Surry, May 20, 1909, while the book was pass- ing through the press.]
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LETTER SIXTH.
Destruction of the Merrimac-Advance of a Federal fleet -- Engagement at Harding's Bluff-Re-election of officers- Postscript-Note.
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