Blair’s Landing S. C. Mar. 7^th 1865

 

My dear George and Jesse.

                                                You will probably ere this have come to the conclusion that I have forgotten you. But I can assure you that if such be your opinion it is an erroneous one: though I have neglected I have by no means forgotten you. The only excuse I have to offer for my long silence is this; that it is always a difficult task for one to write, even to my nearest friends, when separated from my command. With my own command there is always something to serve as themes for letter writing; away from it all occurrences seem tame and commonplace; I become listless and apathetic utterly averse to handling pen and paper more than is absolutely necessary. You have probably learned/ from Father, that contrary to my expectation, on arriving at Savannah, I was unable to proceed farther, and consequently unable to rejoin Gen Geary. The 20^th Corps left Lister’s Ferry about two days before my arrival in Savannah and there was no method of communication with it. Much to my chagrin I was forced to remain idle, awaiting the progress of events to determine my course of action. My hope for a time was that within the course of eight or ten days I might be able to join the Army at or near Charleston; unfortunately for me, this hope proved futile. After remaining in Savannah for about a week, I learned that all officers and men enroute to Sherman’s Army were ordered to report to Brig Gen Prince at Blair’s Landing. According to orders, I left Savannah in company with about twenty officers and two hundred men, similarly situated with myself and/ proceeded to the place indicated.

 

            On reporting to Gen Prince, he was kind enough to assign Capt Wilbur (of Gen Geary’s staff) and me to duty upon his staff as Aides de Camp.

 

            Since that time I have, with the exception of two business visits to Pocotaligo and Beaufort, remained steadily at this place; and here I expect to remain until Gen Sherman opens communication and the command under Gen Prince is ordered to join him.

 

When this time will be is a matter of much uncertainty and is the theme of considerable speculation. The wish may be prompter of the thought but my own opinion is that Gen Sherman will open communication with the coast byway of Goldsborough North Carolina, within the course of a week and that within another week thereafter this command will have joined him. Although I consider I am perfectly blameless for/ for any present position, I cannot but feel deeply mortified that I should be separated from my command, when it is engaged in so important and glorious a campaign. It has always been my hope that I might participate in all the struggles, toils and hardships through which the command to which I belong might pass, that I might call all its battles and marches “ours.” But alas I am doomed to disappointment, and regrets are unavailing. For my disappointment I have these consolations: I am absent from the 20 Division unintentionally and without fault of mine; my previous military history is such that I think none of my friends in the field or at home will suspect me of any desire to shrink either duty or danger; and I am now upon duty; not as important, not as dangerous this time as that which I should be performing were I with my own command, but still I am upon duty in Shermans Army.

 

            Meanwhile I sincerely hope that the day is near at hand when I shall be able to rejoin the old “White Star Division” in time to participate in the campaign which it is to be hoped will be the closing campaign of the war. I want to be in at the death and I feel almost confident that the Spring campaign in which the Armies of the Potomac and of the West shall join hands in a trial of/ kill and strength with the consolidated armies of the Rebellion. I claim to be no prophet, and yet I think I can venture safely on this prediction, that before entering upon the grand campaign which will place Sherman and his Army before or around Richmond; there will be one brief breathing spell; in which the troops shall be refitted, supplies of ammunition and arms be accumulated and everything placed in readiness for a campaign which will probably witness some of the heaviest fighting of the war. The prospects of a speedy triumphant close of the war certainly seem more brilliant now than ever before and it appears to me that unless unforeseen disasters supervene, the summer will witness the utter overthrow of the Rebellion. But whether peace come this year or next or the next, to me/ it seems it can in no other way than through successful war. If swords and bayonets cannot reestablish the Union, paper and speech will fail to gain us an honorable or a lasting peace.

 

            To those unacquainted with the movings of an army, it would seem strange that there are en route to Sherman not less than eighteen thousand officers and men. Of this number about twelve thousand are now in North Carolina under Gen Meagher, the remainder are under Gen Prince. The number of “stragglers” of an army is proportioned to its size and its actvity. Sherman’s is a large and a very active army, consequently his stragglers are very numerous.

 

            Officers become “stragglers” by being sent to Hospital, by obtaining Leaves of Absence, by being upon detached duty, by circumstances which separate them from their command during an active campaign. Men become stragglers from similar/ causes. The great majority of the men at this Camp are recruits, substitutes, and conscripts who have never been with Sherman, but are assigned to regiments in his command. The remainder of the men are principally convalescents returning from Hospitals at Nashville and in the North and West. The new men are a choice set of vilains, with about enough good men intermixed to prove the generality of rascality. The majority of the substitutes seem better fitted for confinement in Northern jails than for soldiers fighting for the preservation of law order and liberty. I sometimes fear that unless we end the war speedily, we shall be forced to abandon its prosecution in disgrace.—the time men are rapidly being culled from our ranks, and the places vacated by volunteers are but poorly supplied by the mercernaries and bounty jumpers who now seem to represent the patriotism of the/ North in 1864-1865.

 

            Hereafter if you desire it and you each write me letters, I will write to you separately.

 

            The weather to day is decidedly like the weather usually prevalent during the present month in the North. The wild flowers are however in bloom and the birds lively and chirping; we have had quite a number of days in which the weather has resembled that of our northern June.

 

            I wish to know from Jesse what he did with the photograph carried off from our house, the last evening I was home.

 

            I feel very much interested in that young lady, and nothing would please me better than for her and for Jesse to discover in each other, the “affinity” for each.

 

            The young lady herself would give me “fdg” if she knew what I was writing concerning her, hence I do it in confidence.

 

            I am anxious to know of George’s proceeding among the fair sex.—If either of you should need my services as groomsman before my time is up or the war over, I shall endeavor to get a leave of absence to enable me to perform the required part.

 

            Unless Sherman opens communication by way of North Carolina before you write direct to me “care Capt Pratt Ordnance Officer Hilton Head SC.” Should Sherman come out direct to me as of old, Geary’s Division Twentieth Corps Shermans Army. If you direct to me Capt Pratt, omit all titles save Captain.            Give my regards to our mutual friends My love to your Father and Mother and for yourselves

 

            and believe me sincerely        Your friend

                                                                        W^m H Lambert

SOURCES