As we continue to commemorate the 150-year anniversary war, I reread the letters between my great-great grandparents in my book
Ever True, published by Heritage Books. Their following letters highlight the Battle of Cold Harbor in June of 1864 (the book also includes a letter from the doctor who amputated my long-ago cousin's arm amputation after the battle). At the battlefield site, a plaque says that the amputations caused blood to seep through the floorboards onto the family who owned the house turned hospital.
Charles:
June
the 6th, 1864
Near Cold Harbor,
VA
Dearest Wife
We have
been fighting for most four days. We was
relieved about three hours ago to come to the rear and rest a little, but we
have been for three days where we doesn’t stand up a minute without having a
dozen bullets sent at us. The first
night we came here, we charged on them and took eleven hundred prisoners. Some of our boys was so excited when the Rebs
jumped upon the parapet, with both hands held up to surrender, that they fired
right in them.
Seward
shows himself a man, not a coward. In
the charge he went right in. He took one
rebel with his sword and knocked him head over heels. He got one leg of his
pants tore most off. He looked pretty
rough.
When we
was on the march coming down here, I used to feel sorry for some of the women. They cried and went on awfully. The boys would shoot their cattle and chickens
and pigs, and everything else, and go right in the house and take anything they
wanted.
Vanderbelt
was shot right through the under arm.
It’s pretty bad. Hank Porter was
just shot dead. I help carry him out.
I hope
they will give us some chance to sleep some tonight.
From your ever true and affectionate husband.
Mrs. Janet Seward: “On
the evening of the 1st of June, while sitting in the twilight, I heard my
Husband call ‘Jenny.’ I jumped up,
listened, and heard again, ‘Jenny,’ so distinctly that I went into the hall,
and again came the voice, ‘Jenny’ so plain I looked over the railing, fully
expecting to see him coming up the stairs. There was no one there, and I went back
disappointed, thinking how strange it was.
Afterwards, I found that this occurrence took place at the very hour
that he was in the Battle of Cold Harbor, and came very near losing his life.”
Charles:
June the 19th, 1864
Near Petersburg
Dearest Wife,
I tell you a soldier’s life is a
curious life. Sometimes we are ordered
to halt and put up our tents, and we just get them up, when we are ordered to
pack up and leave. I have seen some of
the men drop right down in the middle of the road, they would be so tired. Sometimes the dust flies so we can’t see a rod
ahead of us.
We was ordered to make a charge
yesterday morning, but we got in front of their works and found them rather
strong, so we had to fall back. John
Dean was shot through the head when going out of the pit to make some
coffee. He died instantly. It was a rebel sharp shooter that done it.
They are pretty good marksmen.
We had a flag of truce hoisted twice when we was there to
have a chance to bury the dead. We would
go half way to meet the Rebs and change newspapers, and they talked very
reasonable about the war. They say if it wasn’t for the
officers they would be all right.
Nancy:
Dearest Husband,
I was very glad to hear from
you. Oh yes, I had almost give you up
for dead. It is all I ask for in the
world, that your life may be spared so that you can return home. I don’t think that anything would make me
unhappy when I could have you so near me, and know that you wasn’t in such
great danger. But the Lord knows best whether I shall ever see you again or
not.
My cousin Stephen Wager was in that
battle [Cold Harbor] and got his right arm shot off. He had it amputated in the shoulder
joint.
Miss Carry don’t hear anything from
her man, as he can’t write. They have the story around that he is wounded.
I bid you goodbye, hoping to hear
from you again.
Narrator: Nancy continues to receive Charles’s letters describing his involvement
in history-making battles, marches, and the destruction and theft of
Confederate property.
But
Charles also writes of the mundane, the kind of information only a wife would
be interested to know. Like the time he is living in Southern territory with
two Confederate women.
Charles:
July the 4th,
1864
Dearest Wife,
I aint where I was last fourth, but
we have got a nice place here for a day or two.
There is two women lives here. An old woman and a girl, and they cook for us
and we fare pretty well.
Before we guarded the house, other
soldiers came before the women was up, and broke in, and took everything they
had. They was left without a thing to
eat. I don’t know what she would do if
it wasn’t for us soldiers. We give them
hardtack and coffee.
Goodbye Nancy.
I wish I was with you today.
I will now write a few more lines to
you. The fourth is past. I enjoyed myself very well. That woman cooked me some more greens and
they was good. If it wasn’t for one
thing, I would be most a tempted to strike up a bargain with the girl. She is a real nice clever girl.
Nancy: I have just got the
letter that you wrote the Fourth of July.
I don’t think purty much of that girl being so clever. High Thompson, he found some clever ones out
there. The folks says that he has got
the clap so that they can’t go in the house because he smells so bad. They don’t think that he will live long. They thought he was dead one day. The doctor had been fixing him.
...
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