“I had a dim notion about the ‘romance’ of a soldier’s life,” a young man wrote after a particularly ferocious battle in 1861. “I have bravely got over it since.” Similar sentiments were being voiced in letters home as the hardships of war became increasingly intolerable. Aside from the persistent and numbing fear of being killed, soldiers endured seemingly endless marches in suffocating heat, incessant fatigue, ubiquitous lice, chronic illness, and rations that were sometimes no more than a few pieces of stale hardtack (essentially, flat dried biscuits) and gritty, watered-down coffee. Soldiers often toned down their complaints so as not to worry already anxious loved ones back home. But one Iowa soldier, writing after the Union victory over Gen. Sterling Price’s Rebel troops at Iuka, Mississippi, felt no such impulse and ranted emphatically about his maladies, his contempt for his officers and doctors, and, most heinous of all, an apparent shortage of alcohol. (Barely legible, the letter has no salutation or closing with the soldier’s or the recipient’s name, but these may have been on other pages lost over time.)
Octobr the 25 1862
camp Near Corrinth Miss 2nd Iowa cavalry co F Rosecrans Armie
wel I am flat off my ass this eavning once more A Driveing Away at the olde trade again I have thought of every thing that I can think and come to the conclusion that this soldiering is A Durnd Dry bisnes
A fealow can get A cussing any time he is A minde to stick his head out of his tent and if he attemps to stay in it they will come in and kick him out & if A fealow does not feal very well and goes on the sick report the Dr will mark him for fight duty and then he has more to do than he had Befor he reported sick they will make him tend to all the olde sick horses that thare is and thare is jenerly about a Dosen of them where a fealow is well, they cant ask him to tend to nun but his own so when A fealow gets started down hill here it is the liberty of every one to give him A kick that fels that way Disposed
A sick man in the armie is like A poore boy A shucking he has No rite to say anything if you object to do anythin and say you are not Able they will say god dam you go to the hospital then and if he goes to the hospital by him self the Dr will ask him what in hell he wants thare if he is able to walk or stand up he will tell him that he guesses he is trying to play off and will go to work and tell about how many thousand thare is in the hospitals now an expence to the government just a doing what you are he will say then then he will up and cuss you again so if you feel able to walk or any way to get back to your quarters you will think it is better any place than here so you will turn and go back to your company again and stay till you cant turnover then perhaps the company officers will go to the Dr and tell him that thare is A poor Devil over there in the company that seams to be prity damd sick and if he can any way conveinienttly send the ambulance over and get him so then you will get off to the hospital the soldiers heaven one would think to see A newspaper account of it but sure
I dout one bit but what the goverment does provid every thing that is necessary to make A soldier comfortable but the men that is imployt to take care of it is what plays the dickens with everything thare they will set in those fine tents drink thare Regular two quarts of uncle sams good whisky every day that hes furnished expressley for medical purposes
Just so long as A soldier is well and can go ahead and do every thing he is A good fealow but let him get sick and ask to be excused from duty then you will here him get it from all sides the damd lazzy sonofabich he is Afraid to go to the Drs for fear he will ketch hell from him they will say get out of this if you cant get on the sick report you cant get any favors from me so if A fealow can walk he has got to toddle or else be tied to a tree
the newspapers will tel you what great care our medical aids take of the wounded but I have seen A little of that too while I was suposed to be A damd privet and did not no anything. I seen them here at Corrinth when they was A taking care of the wounds of our men thare sufering for the want of care while they was dressing the wounds of the Rebbles, it mad me curse the day I was bornd, I thought it was time to take care of them after ours was all mad comforttable I dont wonder at the Rebbles A going ahead with such great confidence they have nothing to fear if they fall in to our hand wounded or prisners they no that they will live and have the Best of care
I am not Discouraged at all but I cant see any end to the war as when we are A going to conker the Rebbles the way the north is A caring on the war it is true this Regment has made some very Pointed Demonstrations towards distroying Baretts men and property I will venture to say that us and the 4th Cansas has distroyed more Rebble property and freed more neegrows than any other two or all the rest of the Regments in the servis
Stealing horses and Burning Bildings and killing cattel and sheep is A thing we are A geting noted for whare ever we finde A horse we take him if we have any use for him at al if he is better than the one we use an turn him out and change it is very true we get hailed up for it once and A while and get the Bracelets on our legs for it but we dont have to ware them A weeke or so and then all is over about that matter
thay may talk about the generalship that was used at Iuka by general Hamilton but thare is A few that is left that can tell how the matter was arangd I saw the account of it in the papers and I expect you seen the same and I say what I seen was A Damd unmitigated lye and not a word of it true about general Hamiltons being on the ground all the time, he just marched his men towarze Iuka till the enimy met them and then as we just went to firing in confusion, hamilton did not no where his men was nor him self either I passed his head quarters the next day and I should think he from the looks of the wine bottles that lay in the Rear of his tent was haveing A glorious olde Drink
I expect thare was more of our men killed by our own men thare than the Rebbles kill for us because thare was hardly a Regment but was fired in to by our own men and some more than once because they was scatered all over the woods and could not tell who each other was
and when they found Price was A Retreeting they sent co F and B of this Regm and too compainies of the 4th Cans to cut of his re tree te (A force of 40,000 men) and we run on to them about sun up and they fired in to us and we had A little skirmish and they turnd A Battry on us and was obliged to fall back and get Reinforcements we dismounted and sent an ordeley to general hamilton telling him what was wanting the ordeley found him A slepe with his Bodygard around him with orders not to allow him to be dis turbed till he wake up, so we kept falling back till we found they was not A folowing us up and then we advanc again and that time we found about 50000 cavalry rite under A hill just A wating for us so we scud back again
we dun that four times and all the time sending for reinforcement they was thar redy to come all they wanted was the order from Hamilton, and we never got them till about 4 oclock and then Price had got clear A part. when he came up the 2nd Iowa stood thar and he found that Price was gon he ordered that cavalry, ses he, folow him up and give his Reargard hell of course the order had to be obeyed it went A head And found A Reargard of about 50000 cavalry and A Battery of six guns well suported by infantry thare was A wicked little fight took place and the Rebbles Run our loss was light
thou the pursuit of Price was ended about 5 miles south of Iuka and over that five miles is whare our troops Dun thare hard marching they was put over that five miles in about 9 hours
Hamilton tells that he folowed Price till his men was compleetley give out, sor footed and all this but I dont think thare was any sorefooted ones unless they stumped thare toes on some thing that way
But we all supose our generals noes thar Bizz I will quitt I dont supose you will bleave half of this any way
I supose you would not like to write to A frind so I shant ask you to all I ask of you is to reed this
Griping about insufferable conditions was not uncommon, but a number of soldiers took a more drastic step: they deserted. During the Civil War an estimated 280,000 Union and 104,000 Confederate soldiers were classified as deserters—to date, the highest rates recorded in American wartime history. (At the height of the Vietnam War the numbers peaked at 7.4 percent, compared with an average of about 11 percent in the Civil War.) Punishments for desertion varied from receiving a mere reprimand to being flogged, imprisoned, branded on the face with a “D,” or, in the most serious cases, shot. The latter was rare; executions could have a counterproductive effect on troops, and the vastly outnumbered Confederacy could hardly spare the men. Newspapers were quick to report when executions were carried out, serving as cautionary reminders to those tempted to flee. But these reports were not always accurate, as a mortified young Union private named Francis Christiance discovered one day while reading the paper.
Alexandra Heights, Oct. 7, 1861.
Dear Wife,
I this day received an issue of the Star and Times containing the following paragraphs which no doubt overwhelmed me as much as it certainly must have done you. “To be shot: Francis Christiance deserter from the ranks of Capt. Truax’es Company, one which we have known for a long time was sentenced to be shot and perhaps met his faith at noon to-day. We have not given this fact publicity before, we did hope for and do not yet despair of a reprieve for the misguided soldier though the fact that this terrible punishment is meted for a second offense seems to abide it:—”
I simply deny in to each and every specification contained in the above.
1st. I am not shot.
2nd. I am not sentenced to be shot.
3rd. There has not been here the slightest supposition among the men or myself that I was to be shot.
4th. I never deserted from Capt. Truax’es Company nor have I ever been tried for any charge for desertion. From whence these false assertions could have originated I cannot surmise. But if he has feeling for a kind and loving wife, a household of children, not to say of the grief that fills your heart at this report, he certainly would not be humanity to contradict it.
This afternoon Col. Jackson has received a letter requesting the transmission of my dead body to my wife, my feeling may better be imagined than described. The editor of the Star certainly should bare a great deal of the blame for publishing a rumor leaving a whole family on the foundation of what must have been a mere rumor, but this is not the first nor I suppose the last kindness we will receive from those we left behind.
Truly your loving and yet living husband,
Francis Christiance.
Another Union soldier, Charles Bingham, wrote to his wife, Sarah, to describe in chilling detail the execution of a deserter, whose death he witnessed firsthand.
August 9 1863
Same old camp 6 miles from Rebbys
My dear wife
i seat myself again to pen a few lines to you again as it is Sunday and did not think that i could let the day pas without a little conversation with you and it may be that you are engaged at the same business at this moment i would like to know if you are out but i supose that the day will be spent in visiting with happy friends and neighbors and i would not wonder if you had a quite a good time at it i hope that you will
i tell you what it is it is so hot here that it aint comfortable a setting in the shade and do nothing i had a letter from mother two or three days ago she was well at the time she is to work out there for ten shillings per week and she says that this fall she is a coming out to see you if she lives
the day before yesterday the execution of a man took place out in front of our camp it seems as though he had enlisted some three times getting a big bounty each time and then desert again i stood and watched the execution of him the division that he belonged to was marched out the band playing a lively tune all the while untill they formed a hollow square then came the officer on horse back then came the pallbearers four in number carrying his coffin the one that i spoke of in one of my other letters close to them was the chaplain and the criminal keeping the step as firm as if he was going out on parade
next came the band playing his death march in fine stile but it did not seem to affect him in the least and following them was 12 with loaded guns and i think there was four others with loaded guns in reserve so if the first did not make the work of death complete the others could finish it at once
they marched in and sat the coffin down and took their position behind the man the chaplain then stood by him and made a prayer and shook hands with him bade him good bye and steped back
the officer approached him and he steped forward took off his cap and blouse laid them down alowd himself to be blindfolded and then took a seat on his coffin the officer shook hands with him and bade him good by and steped back to the twelve exicutioners the criminal then raised his hand three times holding it out straight the last time but he did not hold it long before the death messengers hit him he fell from of his coffin and lay there kicking
the officer steped up and called the others they stood there they came puting their guns quite close to him and let drive and that was what all called butchering and then my company right ahead guide right march pass in review pass and the whole division passing by where he lay and so back to their quarters and so ended the life of a Deserter
So i have give you as good an idea of the matter as I can but believe me that i dont want to see any more such proceedings The first shots i did not mind so much but when the others came up and almost put their guns against his breast and head it all most made me sick and as many as was seen at gettysburg laying dead it did not cast as mutch solemnyty over the troops as that one mans death did and what will his wife think when the news reaches her for i have heard that he left a wife and two children
well i must drop this and wind up i am well and doing well and god grant that this bad mess of scribling may find you in good health the weather has been exceedingly hot for all i thought that it was getting colder please write as often as i remain your kind and affectionate husband and shall till death give all the love that you can spare to them that kneeds it only keepe what you want.
Charles E. Bingham, Sarah J. Bingham so good by for this time