Camp near Stafford Court House Va

Nov 19 1862.

 

Dear Sister

                                    Your letter of the ninth came to hand Saturday night. I should answered it the next day Sunday, but for a change in the orders of the day. Sunday we had a big days work to do, to pay for our previous weeks inactivity, and since then we have been on the move until yesterday afternoon, when we came to a halt within a mile or two of Stafford Court House, and not a great ways from Acquia Creek. So you see we are again not far from the vicinity of Washington I wish the paymaster would take advantage of the opportunity and just pay us a visit, and at the same time the four months pay due us for supporting the Constitution and the Union. If I had a few postage stamps I should not care so much about the pay / for I find I am a great deal better contented when I have no money than when I have it.

 

I am glad that I am going to have a pair of mittens so soon, or rather that the prospect is so good of having a pair so soon, though the weather for the past few days has been quite warm so that mittens has been unnecessary articles to cart around though I expect we shall have a cold snap when the storm clears away. I am most afraid they will not come through so quick if you direct to Couch's Division as we have nothing to do with him now whatever or he with us. The best way now to direct is as I wrote you in my last that is Washington D.C. with the name of the Co. and regiment, which will be sufficient in all respects. I understand we are again an independent Division the same as we were at the time of the battle of Sharpsburg when we were dodging about here there and everywhere. There is a little piece, a line or two, in your letter relating to Frank Wilcox. it seems by / by it that he is dead. I heard, in one of your letters that a man by the name of Wilcox was reported killed in his regiment and that you supposed it was Frank, but I never heard any thing more about it. The next time you write please let me know the circumstances, or what you know of them.

 

Yes I have got my lining you sent out to me last year, and the same old blanket I took with me from Providence. I should like to have a snooze under it in the old squeaking bed upstairs if I am lucky enough to get back again. If yarn is so high, why wouldn't it be a good plan to send home a pair of stocking legs the foot of which I have pretty much ground out. I will see how much it costs to bring the mittens out and go by it a little.

 

You hadn't better laugh about my cooking beans for I can making them just as good as anybody it takes quite a while to soak them its true but then we have the time to spend in cooking them. I wish they would give us beans oftener (not the way Jackson gave them to the British) for they / go about as good as anything we can have. I have got some pepper sauce that I made and have carried almost a hundred miles in my haversack, strong enough to make the tears run right out of your eyes to only smell of it.

 

It seems the army has settled down again the same as when McClellan was in command I am glad it has for I was afraid it would make bad work. Burnside rode past us when we were on the march Sunday. Jo Wood says he dont see as he is ever going to be able to get his discharge to go on a gunboat. all he wants to go for is to get out of the army He says if it should run along until his term of service had nearly expired he should not accept an appointment in the Navy as he could do better in the merchant service. Jo dont like the Captain nor do any of the noncommissioned officers. he is the slimmest man I ever saw for Captain. he dont take the least interest in the world in his Co. only so far as concerns his own personal interests. he makes Jo do all his writing even that which he is required by law to do himself. Jo gets pretty huffy sometimes and thats all the good it does.                       

Lowell C. Cook.

 

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I saw Ma's name in the papers the other day. there was a cheese hitched on to it, but not so that I could get a piece of it. The Potomac was about as wide where we went through it as it is from your house down to Parkman's quite a little brook for its size. Co I's deserters are marched along under guard in pairs hitched together at the wrists with an iron bracelets and short chain_x

 

[Tuesday, November 5, 1861.]

There was a very heavy frost last night. the ground this morning looked as if there had been a light snow_x

we lay in the woods where we came in yesterday till noon to day, when we packed up and left. we was on the march till night though gained but little ground it seemed to me as if we were trying go around as many angles as we could. when we camped for the night our regiment got into a good deal of a row with the Mass 37^th about some fence rails in the scrape one of our boys knocked the Col of the 37 over the head and quite a lot of boys got bloody noses_x

 

[Wednesday, November 6, 1861.]

We were put on picket last night whole regiment, as a sort of punishment for the row last night This morning we had hardly time to cook anything before we commenced our march. It was very cold and windy and a first rate day to march. we went about fifteen miles, camped at night in a heavy piece of hickory wood. we are on the Manassas Gap railroad, at a place called White Plain Station. the cars went through to night for the first time. We came across a rebel house today, and when we left it they were minus 20 turkeys as many hens a dozen geese pigs, eggs, apples and all they had that could be got hold of Gen Howe told his men to clean the house out.

 

[Thursday, November 7, 1861.]

This morning when we got up it was all over cloudy and very cold. it soon began to snow and is still snowing four oclock The ground is white and everything looks wintry_x The boys are right on their muscle today I guess some of them have travelled as far as we marched yesterday they are after something to eat. They have killed over seventy sheep for our men. this man has got a guard on his property now. seems some like locking the door after the horse is stole. I had a good chicken for supper last night since I begun to write one of the boys came into the tent and gave me a couple of spare ribs of a pig_x I have got a new pair of pants_x

 

[Friday, November 8, 1861.]

It has been a cold cloudy day the snow has all gone but what lies close up under the logs and stones around in the woods. We have laid in camp all day but to night there is stories going the rounds that we are going to march in the morning at half past six_x We are having a fast today this morning I ate three hard crackers, and a half a spare rib. that was all I had to live on. at night three of us bought four pounds of flour which we made into griddle cakes and made all we could eat and had three cakes left_x

 

[Saturday, November 9, 1861.]

We were called up this morning at half past four, drew our rations of meat and coffee but no sugar and only two crackers to a man. I washed up and went to bed again and lay till half past six, then packed up and marched off at seven. we marched till about eleven then went into camp in the woods. this afternoon we got a lot of hard bread and we are all right again now. I dont know what the reason was that our rations could not be brought to us, but it is said the rebels intercepted our trains. We are now near New Baltimore_x

 

[Sunday, November 10, 1861.]

We have had a very pleasant day for this time of year. we have staid in camp all day. there is any quantity of rations here such as they are but we have no sugar The first L.I. regiment side of us has drawn potatoes, molasses rice, sugar, and a lot of other things which we cant get. it makes the men swear some because we dont have the same fare_x McClellan and Burnside have passed by us three times to day. it is said that Halleck is to take a place in the Cabinet. McClellan to be Commander in Chief of the U.S. Army, and Burnside to take McClellans old command. if its so I hope there will be something done_x I have seen one of my Hospital patients to day_x

 

[Monday, November 11, 1861.]

It has been a very pleasant day though the sky towards night began to look streaked with clouds. Tomorrow I think will be rainy We have been in camp all day early this morning I went down into the village of New Baltimore and traded off about a pound of coffee that I had saved from my rations and got some biscuit and a peck of potatoes for it. We have made four meals out of them today and there is enough for two more tomorrow_x We have had papers in camp today the first we have seen for over a week_x It seems McClellan has been superseded by Burnside and has left the field his address was read to us tonight_x

 

[Tuesday, November 12, 1861.]

We have had a warm muggy day with a few drips of rain now and then. There has been nothing to do except to cook our victuals and eat them_x We have now got a new way of disposing of our hard crackers and one that makes them rather more palatable. We pound them up in a mortar as fine almost as meal then mix them up in water, hard enough so they can be kneaded with the hands into cakes, and then fry them in pork grease. they taste pretty good though a little sage and pepper would make them go better. I have got four eggs that I am going to cook tomorrow morning for breakfast_x

 

[Wednesday, November 13, 1861.]

It has been quite a pleasant day though rather cool in the morning before sunrise I went with another man in the co. to a sutlers after some butter. I went to show him the way and for this I got a good large piece myself. he paid for it fifty cents a pound. on the way we found potatoes enough to fill all our pockets that had been spilled by somebody's cook, and which made us with the eggs I got last night a first rate breakfast, also supper and dinner and enough for breakfast tomorrow. This is living high for soldiers_x Haswell and Tucker deserters from co F. received their sentence to night They forfeit all pay due them from the government and are to be kept at work on fortifications the rest of their term of service

 

[Thursday, November 14, 1861.]

A very pleasant day warm as summer All day in camp with nothing to do_x I am afraid that McClellan's removal is going to have bad effects in the country as well as in the army. the army has come to a dead stand still, and no signs of moving at all It seems that Fernando Wood, Van Buren, and a lot more such men have had a meeting opposing the war and administration and in favor of McClellan for President I am afraid of worse times in the North than we have yet seen if things go on in this way much longer a good many officers have resigned and the privates would if they had the privelige allowed officers. no one seems to find any fault with Burnside but they think McClellan has been misused. I go in for Burnside_x

 

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The mail has just come I got a letter from Eva and and one from Ans.

 

[Friday, November 15, 1861.]

Another very pleasant day We have had rations dealt out to us throughout the day almost. As fast as the teams get up with us with the rations they are issued to us, one day's rations came to night after tattoo. this we shall get in the morning It is said we are to march at eight oclock in the morning but its not known_x I have had two more letters to day one from Sally and one from Mary Cook_x I dont supose I shall have a letter again in a month_x Well if I dont get any I shant have them to answer_x

 

[Saturday, November 16, 1861.]

We struck our tents this morning as soon as we got up. troops commenced moving right off at once but it was after nine oclock before the road was clear for us, and when we got started nothing but men was to be seen behind us the road was full for a mile back_x We left the roads for the teams ourselves taking the fields alongside_x we are taking a south east direction as a general thing though we have to go towards all points of the compass to get anywhere_x We passed Catletts Station towards night and camped soon afterwards I made a first rate bed of leaves_x It rained in the night but we kept dry_x

 

[Sunday, November 17, 1861.]

We started this morning at about eight oclock_x It has been misty and rainy all day though we have kept dry all the time_x We are now camped in the woods about twenty miles from Fredericsburg_x We have made about fifteen miles today and we all feel a little tired Old Newton puts us right over the ground with short resting spells and they far between_x at noon we halted an hour_x My supper of crackers and coffee and fried pork started about as sweet as any meal at home I feel about as well as I ever did in my life. I can eat a raw dog biled I believe if I couldnt get any thing else_x

 

[Monday, November 18,1861.]

It has been about the same kind of weather to day that we had yesterday, cloudy and misty_x We started on the march as soon as it was light, having had an hour or a little more to pack up in and get breakfast. The march to day has not been so hard as days before. we have made about six miles I should think. we stopped at one oclock and I suppose we shall stay all night as it is now dark_x We are within two or three miles of Stafford Court and not a great many more from Acquia Creek. The looks of the country begins to look level and sandy somewhat like the peninsula

SOURCES