Chapter 14
The Death of a “Worthy Son”
Josiah to Jennie
Vicksburg Battle Field
May 30th 1863
Miss Jennie E. Lindsay
Esteemed Lady,
This is such a lovely moonlight evening Oh how I do wish that some one could help me enjoy its balmy southron breezes! But you say that your evening looked so peaceful. what a contrast I believe I would prefer the wish of dear Jennie—a cooler climate and warmer hearts would be much more desirable.
Well my dear friend you last dear letter of the 5th inst. came to hand as we were just leaving Grand Gulf. I believe I wrote then that you might expect my next from Jackson Miss. But as you see it is Vicksburg and ere this I presume you have heard of the muss that we have raised out here in the woods. well the row is still progressing and as yet I see little signs of settlement.
We have had some hard fighting but as yet have only succeeded in driving the rebels within their works. this is the 12th day of the battle, however for several days the rebels have not dared to show themselves not even to fire a cannon, once and awhile a sharp shooter creeps up and fires at our men but this is all they dare venture. some of our men hold positions within 50 yds of the rebel forts but their works are so strong that it is hardly possible to scale them. our forces made a charge on the 22nd inst but only a few reached the inside and they had to retire immediately. my Co. lost 2 killed & 4 or 5 wounded during the charge, I believe it was the hottest fire that we have ever met. during rest of our time since our arrival we have been engaged as skirmishers and have not lost very heavily.
One of our best men was killed on the 28th his name was John B. Stephenson.1 For the past year he has been acting as assistant Srgn. he was one of my Co. and none will be more sadly lamented. he was beloved by all. but death loves a shining mark. Oh what an unspeakeable weight of guilt must forever rest on the vile perpetrators of this rebellion. eternity will be too short for their punishment. the eternal fires of perdition must strive in vain to effect the calous heart of that incarnate fiend so lost for time and eternity as to plunge a nation such as ours into such a cruel civil war. but justice cannot sleep forever. and I hope that when this strife is over our nation may come forth as gold from the refiners furnace—true the fire is strong enough, and I believe that when we are properly chastised and return in humility to acknowledge that God whose anger we have provoked, that all will be well. then and not till then will we enjoy peace and all its blessings. But dear friend you will please excuse this sermonizing. At present I can give but few items that would interest you. I presume you’ve heard of the more than probable death of Col. Cromwell.2 that will be sad news to his family. I saw him a few days before.
I think our hardest fighting is over here, I think the rebels will not dare to come out and must surrender when their provision gives out. we just lie round now and if one shows himself shoot at him. strange past time! but such is war.
Well you have at last seen that dear “soldier boy” I am so glad, for I know how happy it would make dear Jennie. I almost envy him. but it is sweet to know that another is “kindly remembered.”
But I fear I am imposing too much on good nature so my dearest friend I must bid you adieu for a short time, for I am looking every day for one of those dear little messengers that serve so much to cheer the heart. with implicit trust in that God who ever careth for us. I bid thee a kind good night. tho cannons round me roar may dearest Jennie sweetly sleep, a kiss.
J. Moore
P.S. My next shall be from Vicksburg. you’l see goodnight. I write this on a cartridge box and under the shade of some bushes I have not been in a tent for over a month. Goodbye J.M.
Sharpshooting continued to exact a heavy toll, and Stephenson’s death provoked in Josiah not just tremendous sorrow but an intense anger at those he believed were “the vile perpetrators of this rebellion.” This letter marked what might be labeled the “high-water mark” of Josiah’s enmity against the South, or at least against those he blamed for the conflict.
Just as he had after the death of Clark Kendall at Fort Donelson, Josiah undertook the difficult task of breaking the news to the Stephenson family back home in Illinois. Josiah wrote his letter on May 29 (the day before his missive to Jennie) and mailed it to Stephenson’s father. It was a long letter as far as such things go, for Josiah had a lot to say. The letter was subsequently published in the June 12, 1863, edition of the Monmouth Atlas:
Vicksburg Battle-Field
May 29th, 1863
Samuel Stephenson, Esq.
Dear Friend:
With feelings of the deepest sorrow I now seat myself on the battlefield to make a sad record—the death of your most worthy son John B. Stephenson. He was killed yesterday, at 2:30 pm by a rifle ball passing through the head, close behind the ear. He died instantly.
Our regiment occupied the position of sharp-shooters, and was posted from within 150 to 200 yards from the rebel fort. The Dr. was the only regimental physician present, the others being absent, two on detail and the third sick. As at all other times, the Doctor was close by where his duty called him.
During the day, the rebel gunners became very troublesome, and several of our cannon opened on them. While this fire was progressing, the Dr. and another left the Hospital Station—ten rods in rear of the regiment—and went to the front to see the effect of our guns on the rebel works, and after remaining here awhile was about to leave, but just as he turned round the death-blow came. He never spoke. He was not with our company when killed—he was in the quarters of company C.
The news came to me immediately, and Mc3 and I went and found him and carried him back. We had a coffin made, and I procured a bushel of salt to preserve the body; so that I think he will be easily removed. We buried him on the field a short distance below where he fell, and close along side of two others of our lamented comrades, William Alexander and Thomas M. Nelson who were killed on the 22nd inst. The board that marks the grave is the lid of a cartridge box and marked “Dr. John B. Stephenson, Co F, 17th Ill. Vol. Infantry. May 28th 1863.”
After the fall of Vicksburg, I think there will be no trouble in moving the body, should you wish it; but at present it would be very difficult to do anything. I think, however, that with the blessing of God on the means at our disposal, the fall of the infernal city is not far distant. Our army is in good spirits, and though this is the eleventh day of the battle, yet the troops seem more buoyant than ever. But I need not detain you, the news is already too sad. May the God of grace prepare [next sentence is illegible]… dence from an All Wise Jehovah. No news ever came to me so unexpected, [next sentence is illegible] … than the Dr. I do not say half. To know him was to love him. He was extremely kind and obliging, and ever attentive to duty; and the regiment had the highest confidence in his professional ability. He is mourned by all yet we trust that our loss is his unspeakable gain.
I have taken charge of some of his personal items, and shall keep them subject to your request, or until I get an opportunity to send them home.
You have our highest sympathies. May a kind heavenly parent give us all grace to prepare to meet where all tears shall be wiped away.
The rebels have only fired a few shots from their cannon in 4 or 5 days. I think they are afraid to bring their guns to bear on our line of artillery. Their forts, though formidable, are badly breached but I think the rebels will submit to a siege before surrendering.
A most terrible cannonading has been kept up mostly all day by our guns. I do not yet know of a single reply from the rebel guns except sharp shooters, who have at this point killed and wounded one: 1st Capt. Rodgers, commander of McAllister’s Battery, and 2nd, De Goylin, Commander of a Michigan Battery.4
Adieu, J. Moore
There is an interesting difference between this letter and the one Josiah sent to the Kendall family. His prior letter focused almost solely on the sympathy he felt for them. This one, however, explains the military progress of the campaign against the city. Perhaps Josiah was seeking to assure the Stephensons that their son’s death was not in vain, and they could expect military success and the restoration of the Union. Josiah might have intended his words as a rebuttal to the Peace Democrats, for whom he and many others in the 17th expressed such strong distaste. As he did for the Kendall family, Josiah also expressed his strong belief in heavenly redemption.
The same edition of the Atlas printed a letter written to Maggie, Stephenson’s sister, from Lt. William McClanahan. McClanahan had cut a lock of Stephenson’s hair and removed a ring from his finger, which he gave to Josiah to send home to the family.
Some succor, at least, came the 17th’s way. On May 27, Addison Norton, the regiment’s colonel who was still at Young’s Point suffering from a disability, wrote Frank Peats that he had purchased a barrel of whiskey for the men, which “if properly used will be beneficial.” Norton sent the letter via Lt. Col. Smith, who had recently returned to lead the unit in Norton’s absence. Norton hinted in the letter that Smith was somehow lacking as a commander. He also encouraged Peats to convince the brigade commander, John Stevenson, to have Smith detailed “as picket officer or detached in some way until after the final result.” Norton would resign his commission on July 9, 1863.5
Henry H. Penniman served as assistant surgeon of the 17th Illinois. He signed the disability certificate and discharge for James Earp after the latter’s injury at Fredericktown. Penniman would go on to become the surgeon for the 5th U.S. Colored Artillery. The image is inscribed on the back: “To Capt. Josiah Moore with the regards of the original.” Author
The spartan living conditions endured by the men did not mean a shortage of alcohol. “Drinking is abundant in the army,” Henry Penniman, the assistant surgeon of the 17th Illinois, wrote to his wife in June, “though this is luxury denied at these situations except to officers.” He continued: “By liquor, time is killed, spirits supported, care dismissed, and thought drowned. Indeed I had no idea how dreadful are morals in the army. I will explain these matters to you. Every other man will get drunk if he can and every officer is frequently drunk. General John A. L ____is stupidly drunk, report says, every night; and officers follow suit generally.”6
Penniman’s interesting letter also noted Stephenson’s passing—“We had a fine young man killed out of our hospital mess”—but he had a dim view of most of the men of the regiment, and observed the negative effect Stephenson’s death had on his comrades. “[I]t is dreadful to see how much worse a mess or squad will become after one of their number is killed,” he explained. “The balance, some nine or ten, are more profane, more trifling, more reckless, more everything that indicates a worse condition of heart than before.”
Penniman had an aversion to the common soldier even before he entered the service. “I have never mingled, you know, with the lower dregs of society, and, every day, the associations are painful,” he confessed to his wife. “It is dreadful and disgusting. Profanity is universal—often, and generally common oaths—sometimes dreadfully severe and heaven-daring in its tone.” He tried to set a good example, he explained, but such actions were like “going among swine with pearls, and showing the brutes clean garments.” He ended up just making “an occasional remark” and setting a “strict example in all I say and do.” The doctor also complained that all the men wanted to do was “to play cards, to drink, to eat, to run around, to do anything that will hinder the serious thoughts of eternity.” He tried to converse with two people in the regiment “reputed to be religious,” he added. “One is not agreeable, and the other I tried in vain to draw into some very general religious talk [but] it was no use.”7
It is possible that Josiah was one of the two “reputed to be religious.” If so, Josiah may have rejected Penniman’s attempts to socialize because he found his disdain for the men of the 17th Illinois simply insufferable.
Jennie to Josiah
Peoria May 26th 1863
My Dear Friend,
Your most welcome letter of the 7th inst arrived in due time. I was very glad to hear from the dear absent one. The long looked for General has at last arrived. He came on last Wednesday. We find him very pleasant and interesting so much so that I find my self wishing every day that some one were present to help share the pleasure of hearing so many good men express their thoughts.
Andie is still with us he has been home just three weeks he intended returning a week ago but Capt Wilson came home just the day before he intended starting, and said he need not go back for a month if he did not feel better. But Andie has improved so much he doesnt look like the same boy he did when he came home. father said he believe he commenced improving the day after he left the Regt. poor boy the thought of getting home was enough to make him feel better. he often says he can hardly realize that he is at home it seemed to him while he was sick that he would never get home. I believe you met Capt Wilson while you were in Peoria last winter. he has given Andie a place and says he will take good care of him. he talked of leaving on next Friday but I hope he will not go until next week. We want to keep Andie as long as we can it is so pleasant to have him home. I think it most time our other “soldier boy” were coming home, dont you think so.
Good Morning, May 27th
Well dearest friend it seems as though this epistle were destined to linger with me. I have made several attempts to send it forth. yet I am always interrupted. You will have to blame this General Assembly for the delay. We have so many friends here and you know they must be entertained and it is very pleasant to do so yet it occupies all the time. Oh how I do wish you could be here. You know we love to have the dear one share all our pleasure. at least I do, and I believe it right to judge others by our selves.
I received your missive of the 14th ult, on last evening. I can assure you dear friend it gave joy unto the heart that misses thee so sadly. I feel so anxious about the loved one now amid the scene of strife and bloodshed. Yet I trust God will preserve him in the hour of danger.
We have had great rejoicing over the late victories in the West. We feel proud of our brave western soldiers truly you have done nobly. The last report we had was that Grant had taken Vicksburg. I hope it may be true.
Capt Wilson was out on last evening he intends leaving on next Monday for Memphis where he has been ordered to report. he does not know where he will be sent to from there, so Andie wil have to go yet he will not have so hard a time as he had while with the Regt. Capt says he will give him an easy place.
I’ve not yet received those “little secesh articles” you speak of probably they prefer not to come North. Well dearest friend I know you are tired but then if you will stay away you will have to be afflicted by such poor little scribbles. I will send thee my dear friend a good morning kiss.
Write soon
Jennie
The report Jennie heard about Grant taking Vicksburg was premature, although the Army of the Tennessee was daily tightening its grip on the city. Throughout the month of June its guns pounded the trapped Rebels. By the end of the siege, the fleet’s gunboats had fired 22,000 shells into Vicksburg. The artillery shells killed both civilians and soldiers alike. Although the number of civilian casualties is unknown, one estimate is that the prolonged shelling killed 20 women. To escape the projectiles, citizens dug more than 500 caves into the sides of Vicksburg’s hills. One Vicksburg resident described her new abode as having three rooms and a six-foot entrance covered by a cloth “door.” On one side of the entry “foyer” was a bedroom, with a dressing room on the other. The only room in which people could stand upright was the entrance room.
In addition to enduring the shelling, the city suffered from a lack of food. Hungry soldiers and civilians were eventually forced to consume dogs, cats, horses, and even rats. At least two babies were born during the siege. Someone maintained a sense of ironic humor and named one of the children William Siege Green.8
Meanwhile, Gen. Joseph Johnston and his Confederate Army of Relief lurked somewhere east of Vicksburg around Jackson. Johnston, however, showed little inclination about launching an offensive. As a precaution, however, Grant had Sherman create an exterior line to guard against any assault from the east. Even though the combined forces of his army and Pemberton’s outnumbered Grant’s in May, Johnston could never seem to find the right circumstances to initiate an attack.9
The siege dragged on into June. Both sides lacked suitable shelter and remained largely exposed to the elements. The 47 days the Union soldiers spent without tents left a lasting impression on them. “The sun was scorching hot—we shall never forget the fearful hard rains which we had to expose ourselves in,” Sergeant Duncan wrote. The lack of clean water also posed a real problem. “The water does not agree with the men,” one soldier complained. “A good many of them are complaining with the diareah.” “We are camped under a hill side to shelter us from the Rebel shells,’ wrote an Iowa soldier in McPherson’s corps. “the discharge of small arms is almost constant along the line.”10
Grant’s men dug zig-zag trenches that reached in places to within just five yards of the Confederate fortifications by the end of June. In many places the two sides were so close that the “dirt from the two trenches blended together,” observed one of the trapped Rebels. According to one estimate, Grant’s army dug more than 60,000 linear feet of excavations. The digging also included attempts to tunnel under the Confederate earthworks, pack the tunnels with gunpowder, and blow up the strong points along with their defenders. On June 25, the first attempt to do this ended with more loss of life, but no change in the defensive positions.11
Sometimes the digging itself was as lethal as enemy bullets. Henry Pressly of Josiah’s company died on June 4 when the sides of the trench in which he was digging collapsed. Pressly, an Ohio-born accountant, was the son of William Pressly, a leading Monmouth citizen who had founded the Warren County Library and funded a professorship at the college. Henry was 23 years old at the time of his enlistment in 1861. Sergeant Duncan claimed more would have died in the accident had they not been out of the trench getting a whiskey ration—perhaps from the barrel recently sent by Addison Norton. Pressly, who abstained from alcohol, had remained behind to keep digging. According to Duncan, Pressly was buried next to Stephenson and the men killed in the May 22 assault, “each buried in coffins and salt thron about them in order to preserve the remains.”12
Josiah to Jennie
Vicksburg Battle Field Miss
June 10th 1863 11 A.M.
My Dear Jennie,
Another moment of sweet delight permits the “soldier boy” to commune with his dear friend. How joyous a world of “sunshine and shade”! Yes, dear Jennie, as the deep gloom of midnight seems only to lend enchantment to the starry world, so through all the smoke and carnage of battle my dear friend ever appears the guiding star—the same dear lovely one—ever present from the sweet recollections of a happy past when through evenings of sweet associations we were wont to live as tho’ the trials, troubles and sorrows of a sinful world were only fancied or imaginary—Ah cruel indeed would seem the hand that would break such a spell, tho it is scarcely meet that the subjects of King Immanuel should be found complaining, but I trust that the darker night is far spent and the dawn of the brighter day is near at hand.
Your kind and welcome remembrance of the “26th & 27th” ult came to hand on yesterday. I was pleased to hear of your good health and your being so much delighted with the opportunity of entertaining such good company as the “General”—indeed I would not think strange—such notable personages are generaly very fascinating, at first I was almost disposed to feel—Oh not jealous a little envious but you can imagine how displeased I was with myself when on reading a little farther I learned how anxious dear Jennie was to have the “absent one” to share the pleasures and advantages of such an occasion, so now my dear friend you will please excuse my little selfishness I only plead as a palliation the term “absent one” were this removed then I should not complain. aint that fair?
I hope dear friend that you may have a very pleasant and interesting time during the Synodical Session. I used to enjoy such occasions very much, but if I remember right the ladies used to have quite busy work at such times. am I mistaken? and hence I have often thought that if the ladies did have any enjoyment on such occasions it must consist in making others happy, but tho I would not have my dear Jennie “weary in well doing” yet she must not work too hard else some one else will not be pleased.
Well dear lady I am much obliged to you for your congratulations of our Western troops on their successes, for they are almost without a parallel in the history of war. I wish, however, I could join you in your rejoicings over the fall of the ill fated Vicksburg but I fear that news was rather premature I write this within 400 yds of the rebel works and if I raise my head a little too high a rebel bullet immediately tunes its harp, so that I think there must be a mistake, but I trust and believe that with the blessing of God on the means now at our disposal the fall of the city may be put at not distant date.
Our Regt, was on duty day before yesterday and as on such occasions we take position within from 50 to 150 yds of the rebel forts, I proposed a conference with the rebels so after night a little I met two of them half way and shook hands and had quite a chat. Strange work aint it? after shooting at each other all day—they belonged to the 38th Miss., one a native the other a Norwegian.13 I believe I could have easily persuaded the latter to leave his “chivalrous friends” but the former kept a close watch. They talked quite hopeful of their ultimate success, tho they admitted that their rations were scarce we only talked over general news, but we parted as we had met, as tho we were friends, tho we were again firing at each other in less than half an hour.
I went within about 20 yds, last night, of the rebel fort in our front our men are digging a causeway and through it we can advance almost close to the works without being noticed. to say the least the rebels are very closely hemmed in and they scarcely venture to show themselves any more. our artillery now plays on them from every point of our lines and I wonder how anything can live under the fierceness of the fire. they use but little artillery.
Since I last wrote I believe I had but one accident in my Co.—Henry K. Pressly he was killed on the 4th inst by the caving of a bank, while helping to excavate a pit for a Magazine over a tun of earth fell on him, poor fellow it was sad news for us all and no less so will it be for his folks at Monmouth. he was an only son. he was a noble soldier and most exemplary christian. thus the entire 4 killed from my Co since our arrival here were among the very best men, men whose moral worth made them dear to all who knew them. sad indeed is such a sacrifice but not less sad than the object is great and it is to be hoped that after establishing for the second time our liberties, American freemen may rule in the fear of God.
Well dear lady it seems strange that that little article has not yet come to hand. I expressed it from Millikens Bend May 1st and addressed the box to “T.L. Currie Esq. Peoria Ills,” if the agent was honest I cant see where the mistake could occur. the box contained a little basket for you and a fan for Mrs Currie. their value was not of so much importance as the curiosity. perhaps Mr. Currie could look them up yet. I was so spited that I did not have them at the boat to send them with Andie when he was going home. that was my intention but I missed it.
Now my dearest friend I presume you are glad that this paper has given out so I shall not tease you longer. this is to pay you for your last two days letter. but I don’t care if you write every day. I would rather you would write. Hoping that this may find thee in good health as it leaves me “I will now give thee my dear friend a good evening (kiss).”
J. Moore
P.S. When you say “I think it most time our other “soldier boy” were coming home” you spoke the sentiments of another but at present dear Jennie there seems to little prospect of such a bright day tho’I hope always for the best of course that is to get to see you know goodbye. J.M.
Josiah’s account about meeting men of the 38th Mississippi between the lines is well corroborated. Another member of the 17th, Lt. George Buck of Company K, was an eyewitness and wrote about the same encounter and mentioned Josiah by name: “Capt Moore of Co. F met one half way the last day we were out sharpshooting in the night and had a long talk with him. They do not get beef anymore and their mills are burned and so they live on parched corn and molasses.” Such interactions tended to ease the hatred between the sides. One Union soldier who had the chance to meet his counterpart in the trenches in Vicksburg wrote that “if the settlement of this war was left to the Enlisted men of both sides we would soon go home.”14
One soldier of the 38th Mississippi that Josiah might have met between the lines was Capt. John Jones of Company D. Jones was 26 years old. A lawyer before the war, he graduated first in the class of 1856 from the University of Mississippi. Like Josiah, Jones wrote of these nocturnal social activities between the warring sides. “On the right of my regiment the Federal lines were about one hundred yards down the hill, and every night ‘Johnnie’ and ‘Yank’ would call a truce and meet between the lines in friendly intercourse, and thus the 38th and the 17th Illinois became good friends,” he explained. “On parting the ‘boys’ would shake hands and caution each other, in all seriousness, to ‘keep heads down after daylight,’ when they would shoot at each other’s heads with the eagerness of sportsmen.” As on other parts of the battlefield where the Union lines burrowed close to the Rebel defenses, Jones wrote that eventually the 17th Illinois and the 38th Mississippi shared “a common breastwork.”15
The fraternization in the evening did not end the deadly work the next day. Sometimes soldiers threw hand grenades into their opponents’ trenches. “It had the appearance of a ball game,” wrote the Rebel Jones, “only the players never caught the balls but fled from them.” One day a Union soldier tossed a dead rattlesnake into the Confederate lines. More sympathetic soldiers would sometimes throw a cracker and politely inquire about their opponents’ condition.16
Sharpshooting was another deadly game that Josiah mentioned in his June 10 letter. Dr. Penniman said he and the other two members of the regimental medical staff slept together in an eight-foot-square tent pitched under the side of a hill to avoid the threat of Rebel sharpshooters. However, Captain Jones of the 38th Mississippi claimed his men had the worst of it. Since the Confederate lines were higher than the Yankee lines, the Rebels were silhouetted against the sky whenever they rose above a parapet or poked a rifle through the firing ports, while the Federals were almost impossible to spot. Jones found out later that the Yankees would “get the range of one of our ports and lash the gun securely, so as to preserve it.” The Federals would then wait patiently until “a hole was darkened by a Confederate head, the trigger was pulled and a bullet was put through it with unfailing accuracy.” Jones quickly learned that using the gun ports “meant instant death.” One Yankee sharpshooter killed Jones’s brother, who was also a member of the 38th Mississippi. He was only 19 when he died.17
Others in the 38th Mississippi observed how their war had become rather mundane. “The same old routine of shelling and sharpshooters still continues,” wrote William Faulk, a captain in the 38th. “We can do nothing during the day but eat and sleep, and but little to eat and that very common.” Faulk recalled how Union sharpshooters claimed at least one man from the 38th on three consecutive days that June. Others followed throughout the month. Like many of his counterparts in blue, Faulk typically would give “thanks to Almighty God” for those days when there were no fatalities.18
A sharpshooter also claimed a unique participant in the battle when a Union bullet struck “Douglas,” a camel kept by the 43rd Mississippi as a pet. There was no time for sentimentality, though. Once Douglas was dead, hungry Confederates carved him up for dinner.19
The 17th Illinois was occupied on skirmish-line duty during all of those long and deadly weeks, withstanding almost constant sniping and the pounding of cannon from both sides. According to one source, by early June the 17th was responsible for having fired 100,000 rounds since the siege’s beginning. Dr. Penniman described life for the men of the 17th during this period this way:
Marching and countermarching, fighting, watching, and digging, with hot weather, dry and excessively dusty roads and fields, miserable camping—places on the ground, and great scarcity of water—and what we dig for is unhealthy, with very great excess of noxious chemical compounds—short diet, sleepless nights, dirty clothes, absence of tents, distance of wagons, and much confusion among these countless hills, all have aided in rendering the troops debilitated, and most decidedly uncomfortable.
According to Penniman, the regiment rotated into the front line every fourth day. The men would advance at 3:00 a.m. and relieve the previous regiment in the rifle pits. They would remain in that advanced position for 24 hours, until their relief arrived. During their time on the front line, the men had to endure the broiling Mississippi summer sun, poor water—and torments from other residents of the state. “The ground here is full of all sorts of insects,” complained Penniman. This included the usual scourge of the soldier—body lice. Infestations of these tiny insects overcame all attempts by soldiers to defeat them. Even when the men kept themselves clean, close proximity to lice-ridden comrades allowed quick transmission from one body to another. At times, lice colonies became so large that they looked like “a blanket crawling over grass and tree trunks.”20
Major Peats wrote to his wife that it would be “incredible were I to enumerate the number of narrow escapes from death that transpire us.” Once, a 30-pound shell landed near Peats’ tent and scattered his mess equipment but did “no further damage but to demoralise my cook.” Penniman added that he had “three bullets scatter the dust near me, in quick succession, while walking over a part of one of our roads exposed to view of these rebels.” And of course, he added almost unnecessarily, he had “dressed many a dreadful shell wound.”21
Peoria June 11 1863
Capt. Josiah Moore,
Dear Friend
Your dear epistle of the 30th inst came last evening just in time to chase away one of those blue spirits that seek to intrude its self upon our lonely hours. Yet how quickly it flies away at the approach of the joyous message from the dear one.
You dont know how lonesome we are now father and Andie both gone at the same time they left about a week ago. We have not heard from Andie yet, we are looking for a letter every day and are very anxious to hear as he was not so well when he left home. You dear soldier boys are the cause of a great deal of anxiety by the folks at home.
Well dear friend I do hope you may write your next letter from Vicksburg. I will begin to look for you home after that famous city has been captured, now please dont disappoint me. I’ll promise not to go to Chicago if you will only come.
I hope that report about Col Cromwell will prove untrue. it is hard to know what to believe we hear so many such reports.
We are having very pleasant weather now though rather cool for June.
Peoria seems quite deserted since the General Assembly adjourned the members seemed to be very well pleased with their visit to peoria and well they may for they were treated almost as well as the 17th Regt men while here. (Well dearest friend what shall I write to interest thee. Oh that this might be laid aside for another pleasanter medium. Oh that I could speak with thee in place of sending such a miserable little scribble. I know none but a generous heart could pass the many imperfections by.)
Sen. Ross passed through Peoria several days ago on his way home.
We are looking anxiously and almost impatiently every day to hear of Vicksburg being in our possession the opinion seems to be that if we get Vicksburg the rebellion is at an end in the west. I hope it will be so, yet I’ve almost feared to look for such an event ever to be realized. Surely we deserve Gods wrath to be poured out upon us for as a nation we have gone sadly astray forgetting all the while to whom we should give honor and praise, in time of trouble God shows us how weak we are in our own strength He leads us to feel our utter dependence on him. Our only hope in the present is that God will come and save us, we know that all his promises are sure.
Well dearest friend I see you are weary. I will not impose on good nature any longer but will just bid thee a kind farewell for a short time hoping soon to hear glad tidings from the dear one who is kept in kindly rememberance by.
Jennie
P.S. Please write soon and often, dont forget that someone gets lonesome. JEL good bye.
Jennie to Josiah
Peoria June 22nd 1863
My Dearest Friend,
Twilight shadows have just faded into night, so the heart retires in gloomy sorrow to ponder over the dreary present. This pen hath not power to tell thee, dear “wanderer” how I long for thy presence this evening. Alone all alone with naught save this fair sheet for a companion. Silently it sympathizes. Its voice hath no music to greet the listening ear. Yet it grows precious as I think whose dear eyes are to gaze, upon it. Oh I envy thee little messenger.
Father Mother and brother Johnnie left home a week ago to make Maggie a visit. George’s mother is spending the summer with them so Maggie couldent think of coming home, but mother must come and see her. So gone, she has and left poor me all alone, to keep house so any cares are many. I fear the weight of them will effect my health or perhaps mother will discover on her return that the house has suffered more than I. Well we look for them home next week and I’m sure they will be welcome. As Willie says to me last evening Oh Jennie isent it awful lonesome without Mother, yes our mother dear is sadly missed. I can realize what home is without a mother.
I’m going down to Mattie Cutlers tomorrow to [illegible] her to come and stay with me this week. I’ve not seen her for nearly a month, I like to have her visit me she is such good company.
Capt Ryan brought us a letter from Andie he had just arrived in Memphis when he wrote he says he is now getting well. I am so glad to hear of his health improving it is so hard to have the dear boy sick away from home. Capt Wilson may go to Vicksburg. I’m curious to know where they will be sent too. We are looking daily for a letter from Andie. he will know when he writes again.
You said my dear friend your next letter would be written from Vicksburg. how I wish I could receive a letter from you written from that City. Yet I trust you will not defer writing until you are inside its walls. I should almost despair hearing from thee. I wish you could write often if it is but alive. I feel so anxious about you. perhaps I’m asking to much yet I hope the pleasure of hearing from you will plead an excuse.
I fear dearest friend this letter will prove rather uninteresting. I have no news to write you so I tell you about this not very interesting self, but perhaps you will say a poor subject is better than none. Well I will no longer impose on good nature but will say unto thee dearest one fare the well. accept if thou will a good night kiss.
Jennie E. Lindsay
Please dont forget to write soon. J.E.L.
1 Sergeant John Stephenson was the Monmouth physician who enlisted during the patriotic fervor of April 1861. The manner of his death makes it clear just how lethal sharpshooting was along the lines.
2 Col. John Cromwell commanded the 47th Illinois and was killed at the Battle of Jackson on May 16. www.ilsos.gov/genealogy/CivilWarController.
3 “Mc” is Lt. William McClanahan of Josiah’s Company F.
4 “DeGoylin” is Capt. Samuel DeGolyer whose guns had mistakenly injured some of the men of the 17th Illinois during the May 22 assault.
5 Letter from Addison Norton to Frank Peats, May 27, 1863.
6 Division commander John Alexander Logan, like McClernand, was a Democratic political general from Illinois. He had fought in the Mexican War and served in both the state legislature and the U.S. Congress and risen through the ranks from colonel of the 31st Illinois to his present position. One soldier described Logan as having “black oily hair, and a long drooping black oily mustache.” “Don’t he look savage,” observed a captured Rebel when he saw Logan. As Penniman noted, the general also enjoyed his drink. During the Vicksburg siege, he was once observed sitting in only his hat, shirt, and boots, playing a violin while some freed slaves danced around him, all of them downing copious amounts of whiskey. He was also a capable combat officer. Boatner, Civil War Dictionary, 486-487; Hughes, The Battle of Belmont: Grant Strikes South, 18; Hicken, Illinois in the Civil War, 10, 157.
7 Blaisdell, Civil War Letters, 128-130.
8 Faust, This Republic of Suffering, 137; Marten, Civil War America, 46; Winschel, Triumph and Defeat, 154.
9 Shea and Winschel, Vicksburg is the Key, 167-169.
10 Pension Records of Robert Duncan, NARA; Brooks Simpson, The Civil War: The Third Year, 239, 265.
11 Giambrone, Illustrated Guide to the Vicksburg Campaign, 86; Shea and Winschel, Vicksburg is the Key, 158-160.
12 Duncan, company log; Monmouth College, Oracle, 60.
13 The 38th Mississippi Infantry was part of Brig. Gen. Louis Hébert’s brigade, Maj. Gen. John Forney’s division, Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton’s Army of Mississippi. The 38th Mississippi began its service with the Confederate army in 1862, but had yet to leave its home state, having fought in the battles of Corinth and Iuka before being sent to Vicksburg in late 1862. Although none of the companies were recruited in Warren County (where Vicksburg was located), many were from nearby counties. During the assaults of May 19 and 22, the 38th Mississippi was positioned closer to the river (between the 3rd Louisiana Redan and the Stockade Redan), so it did not participate in the fight that bloodied the 17th Illinois. Sometime in early June, the 38th Mississippi was shifted opposite Josiah’s regiment. Website of the Mississippi Sons of Confederate Veterans: www.mississippiscv.org/MS_Units/38th_MS_Inf.htm.
14 Letter in the collection of the Old Court House Museum in Vicksburg; Mitchell, Civil War Soldiers, 37.
15 J. H. Jones, The Rank and File at Vicksburg, in Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society Vol VII ed by Franklin L. Riley (Oxford MS 1903), 23.
16 www.mississippiscv.org/MS_Units/38th_MS_Inf.htm. Ibid., 23.
17 Ibid., 24-25. Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi, Vol 1 (Chicago, IL1891), 1055.
18 Blog: Mississippians in the Confederate Army, Post dated June 14, 2012: www.mississipiconfederates.wordpress.com.
19 Mobile Daily Register, March 23, 1860, pg. 1 col 7; Michael Sorenson, A Most Curious Corps, in Military Images Magazine, Vol. XXVII, Number 5, (March/April 2006), 16-17; J. W. Cook, “Old Douglas”:The Camel Burden Bearer, in Confederate Veteran Magazine, Volume 11, 494. According to available evidence, Douglas the camel arrived in the country as part of an agricultural experiment, and his owner gave him to the 43rd Mississippi’s colonel. In the late 1850s the U.S Army, under the direction of then-Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, established the United States Camel Corps, a short-lived experiment to use camels as pack animals southwestern desert. Douglas was not part of that endeavor.
20 Frank Peats letter to wife, May 28, 1863; Blaisdell, Civil War Letters, 122, 126-128; Adams, Living Hell, 47.
21 Frank Peats letter to wife, June 24, 1863; Blaisdell, Civil War Letters, 123, 127.