What If?

On February 17, 1862, the First Georgia, along with two Tennessee Regiments, received transfer orders.  They were to head west to join the forces under General Albert Sidney Johnston.  Excitement prevailed in camp, as written by a correspondent for the Atlanta Southern Confederacy:
 

CAMP MASON, NEAR Winchester, Va.,

February 17, 1862.

Editors Southern Confederacy:

            Great excitement and activity prevails this morning throughout the camp of Gen. Loring’s whole former command.  This officer was recently promoted a Major-General, and no doubt, will be assigned to another Department of the Army.  His former Brigade have all been transferred from the Valley District to other Divisions of the army; and have been disposed of as follows:  The 1st Georgia, 1st and 3rd Tennessee Volunteers, received orders late yesterday evening to report without for delay for duty, in Gen. A. S. Johnston, at Knoxville, Tenn.  Orders were issued at the same time to the 3rd Arkansas, 7th and 14th Tennessee Volunteers to the effect that those Regiments should report forthwith to Gen. Holmes, commanding the Aquia District, at Fredericksburg, Va.  The remainder of Gen. Loring’s late command, comprising the 21st, 23rd, 37th, 42nd, and 48th Virginia Volunteers, together with Maj. Munford’s Battalion of Irish Regulars, are ordered to report immediately to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston at Manassas.

            This is a complete re-organization of Brigades, and I havn’t, as yet, been able to learn under whose immediate command the several Brigades will be placed.  I learn Geo. Kirby Smith’s Brigade are marching hither from Manassas, to supply the place of the troops before mentioned in the Valley District.

            We will leave this place for our several points of destination as soon as we can get transportation.  Quartermasters are actively employed this morning devising means of transportation.  Wagon-masters and teamsters are equally as busy in getting their wagon trains and teams ready for the march.

            There is an expression of joy resting on every countenance at the prospect of leaving this frigid, rigorous climate.  There is not a single regret in the heart of any one of us at the thought of leaving the snow-clad mountains of Northern Virginia.  The truth is, we’ve performed such hard service, and experienced such intense suffering in this field of military labor, that we were willing and anxious to be transported to some other department of the army.  We now go with cheerful hearts to meet the ruthless invader of our soil in new and different fields.  Clothed with justice and right, our valiant boys, with strong arms and brave hearts, will meet the Hessians successfully on any field in which anything like an equal number is engaged on either side.

            We’ve had one or two considerable snows here of late.  This is cold and disagreeable day.  It is sleeting very heavily.  We will march to Strasburg, 18 miles distant; thence we will go by Railroad to our point of destination.

            Please change my paper to Knoxville, Tenn.  I while away many hours profitably and pleasantly perusing your almost invaluable paper.  You will hear from me again soon.  Haven’t time to write more at present.

                                                                                                                        NESTOR.

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The First Georgia would not make it to Johnston's army.  Landslides on the railroad halted the regiment.  Because the First was close to the end of its one-year term of service, it was decided to divert the regiment back to Georgia to muster out.

I have often wondered what would have happened if the tracks had not become blocked.  Would the First Georgia have joined General Johnston's army?  Would they then have been held in service long enough to participate in the horrendous Battle of Shiloh? 

Thanks to the Visitors

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of those who visit this blog.  As of this week, One More Shot has had over 10,000 pageviews!  By far, the most visited page is one of my earliest posts, entitled "WHICH First Georgia?" (located here).  I sincerely hope that over the past three years that I have been able to provide good information to my visitors.  Many Thanks!

Witness To Suffering

On January 19, 1862, Lieutenant Evan P. Howell of the Washington Rifles wrote home to his uncle of the suffering his company had endured during the march from Winchester to Bath and then on to Romney.  The letter was published in the February 5 edition of the Sandersville Central Georgian.

3 MILES WEST OF ROMNEY, Va.,

January 19, 1862.

Dear Uncle:  I have had nothing of much importance to write up to the first of this month; and since then we have been moving from place to place so that I could not write.

On the 1st of January, as you have heard from the newspaper, we left Winchester, taking a western course.  Three days match, camping at night without tents or blankets on the snow-covered ground, brought us to Bath, where the celebrated Berkley Springs are.  Here there was quite a large force of the enemy, but on our approach they ran off, leaving their sick, a number of tents, provisions, stores, &c.  Our troops double quicked through the town in pursuit of them, but were unable to get but twenty prisoners.  These belonged to the 39th Illinois Regiment.  I saw them and was near by when one was captured.  I had charge of the Ordnance train on that day, and had gone forward to know what to do with it when a little fellow run down to the road and said there was a Yankee at his house, which was about two hundred yards distant.  We sent up some men who found the Yankee under the bed.  He appears very well satisfied with his situation.

At Bath our troops were divided,--Col. Rusk, of the 3rd Arkansas Regiment, took his Regiment and the 37th Virginia and went west of Bath towards the Capon Bridge with the object to burn this bridge, which is on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad while the balance of our troops went north toward Hancock, Maryland.  We arrived at that place in a short time—or more properly opposite it, for it is on the other side of the Potomac—stayed there for two days without anything to eat or a blanket to sleep on.  We shelled the town to our satisfaction, and Col. Rusk returning after having accomplished his object, we all turned back, having, I presume, done all we intended.  We came twelve miles from Bath where we camped three days to recruit our health.  After the experation of that time we took up our line of march for Romney, where there were 4,000 of the enemy under Gen. Kelly.  We reached Romney after a march of five days and found the Yankees had left just as soon as they heard we were advancing on them, notwithstanding they were strongly fortified.  We got a considerable lot or stores from them here but not as much as we got at Bath and Hancock.

Now I have told you what we have done I will next tell you what it has done for us.  Our Regiment left Winchester with seven hundred men and brought to Romney only two hundred and forty men.  The Washington Rifles left Winchester with sixty-two men and now have twenty-five.  Two-thirds of our Regiment are now sick enough to be in the Hospital.  I notice that the army correspondence from Manassas think it is hard for their sick to lay in the horrid Hospitals, and speak of the hardships their troops undergo in winter quarters.  But what would they think of our fix?  In the bleak climate of North Western Virginia, the ground covered one foot deep with snow, with the meager protection of a common tent and half the time not even that, traveling in the day over the rough frozen road, some men with their bare feet on the ground.  This is no exaggerated picture, we see it every day.  I marched day before yesterday seven miles with my toes on the icy road, having worn out the second pair of shoes since I left Winchester.

It would move the heart of any one who is not in the army (for all of us are used to it,) to go through this camp and hear the terrible coughing—some coughing until they vomit.  Yet we have no Hospital for our sick.  Few men at home have any idea what we are undergoing, nor is it possible to tell all we have stood.

Yours affectionately,
E. P. HOWELL.

Research - Use Your Local Library

Without a doubt, one of my most valuable resources while researching material for I Will Give Them One More Shot was the research department of my local library.  The staff there was extremely helpful in tracking down multitudes of obscure books.  As mentioned in a previous post, period newspapers can be a goldmine of information when doing research. The folks at the research desk were able to obtain a multitude of microfilm rolls for old newspapers from libraries and archives from across the country, saving me precious time and money that would have been spent traveling to these repositories. Here are just a few examples of newspaper microfilm which I examined at the facilities of the Henderson County (NC) Public Library:

 

Atlanta Daily Intelligencer

Atlanta Gate City Guardian

Atlanta Southern Confederacy

Augusta Daily Constitutionalist

Columbus Daily Enquirer

Columbus Daily Sun

Columbus Daily Times

Columbus Weekly Times

Cumberland Evening Times

Macon Daily Telegraph

Macon Weekly Georgia Telegraph

Sandersville Central Georgian

Savannah Republican

 

Most public libraries can also provide their patrons with log-ins for various research sites. For example, the Henderson County Library is associated with the NC LIVE program (North Carolina Libraries for Virtual Education) through which I was able to access sites such as Heritage Quest (www.heritagequestonline.com) which contains census records and old books.

 

Lastly, one more fantastic online resource is at www.archive.org – this wonderful site contains a multitude of digitized public books which can be accessed by a fairly easy search engine. Among the public domain works to be found on this site, and which were used as sources in my book, are Isaac Hermann’s Memoirs of a Confederate Veteran 1861-1865, originally published in 1911, and Oscar Cantrell’s 1864 book Sketches of the First Regiment Georgia Volunteers. The books on this site can be either read online, or downloaded in various formats, such as .pdf, DjVu, or even Kindle. Archive.org can even find defunct websites using its “Wayback Machine” search engine.

Merry Christmas

From myself and the rest of the Martin family, I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and a most happy and prosperous New Year.

P.S. Please visit my new website at www.georgewinstonmartin.com!

Free Book

Just a reminder - My Brother, My Friend, My Enemy is available for free today for Kindle on Amazon.com.  You can find the listing here.

Free Kindle Book

On December 6, I will be offering My Brother, My Friend, My Enemy as a free download on Amazon.com's Kindle. I would love to hear any comments about the book. Please feel free to leave a review on Amazon. You can find the listing here.

P.S. You can go to the site now and download a sample of the first five chapters.