Happy US Birthday, Y'all

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to one of the men who fought in the civil war telling his story about
the "Seven Days Battles of the peninsula campaign. He is the soldier
bugler that wrote "Taps" the famous military tune. Here's to a happy US
birthday, Y'all. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]




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Army letters of Oliver Willcox Norton.


July 4, 2012
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Dear Friends at Home:—

I sent a few words to you yesterday just to relieve your suspense,
and to-day I will write a little more, though, in the present condition
of my mind and body, worn out by fatigue and exposure, you cannot expect
much but a disconnected letter. The papers will have told you of the
strategic movement of McClellan’s army, its causes and its complete
success. All that remains for me to write, and all that I can be
expected to know is where the Eighty-third went and what it did. The
fight on the right began on Thursday, the 26th of June, and we took all
on our backs and went out that afternoon but did no fighting. Friday
morning at daylight we fell back to a position on a stream near Gaines’
Mill. The rebels soon followed, feeling their way along, and at about 2
o’clock the fighting became general along the whole line. Our brigade
formed the left flank of the line and lay nearest the river. The
Eighty-third was posted in a deep gully, wooded, and with the stream I
mentioned running in front of us. We built a little breastwork of logs
and had a good position. On the hill behind us the Forty-fourth and
Twelfth New York and the Sixteenth Michigan were posted. When the rebels
made the first attack, we could not fire a shot, the hill concealing
them from us, and so we lay still while the bullets of two opposing
lines whistled over our heads. They were repulsed, but only to pour in
new troops with greater vigor than before. Suddenly I saw two men on the
bank in front of us gesticulating violently and pointing to our rear,
but the roar of battle drowned their voices. The order was given to face
about. We did so and tried to form in line, but while the line was
forming, a bullet laid low the head, the stay, the trust of our
regiment—our brave colonel, and before we knew what had happened the
major shared his fate. We were then without a field officer, but the
boys bore up bravely. They rallied round the flag and we advanced up the
hill to find ourselves alone. It appears that the enemy broke through
our lines off on our right, and word was sent to us on the left to fall
back. Those in the rear of us received the order but the aide sent to us
was shot before he reached us and so we got no orders. Henry and
Denison were shot about the same time as the colonel. I left them
together under a tree. I returned to the fight, and our boys were
dropping on all sides of me. I was blazing away at the rascals not ten
rods off when a ball struck my gun just above the lower band as I was
capping it, and cut it in two. The ball flew in pieces and part went by
my head to the right and three pieces struck just below my left collar
bone. The deepest one was not over half an inch, and stopping to open my
coat I pulled them out and snatched a gun from Ames in Company H as he
fell dead. Before I had fired this at all a ball clipped off a piece of
the stock, and an instant after, another struck the seam of my canteen
and entered my left groin. I pulled it out, and, more maddened than
ever, I rushed in again. A few minutes after, another ball took six
inches off the muzzle of this gun. I snatched another from a wounded man
under a tree, and, as I was loading kneeling by the side of the road, a
ball cut my rammer in two as I was turning it over my head. Another gun
was easier got than a rammer so I threw that away and picked up a
fourth one. Here in the road a buckshot struck me in the left eyebrow,
making the third slight scratch I received in the action. It exceeded
all I ever dreamed of, it was almost a miracle. Then came the retreat
across the river; rebels on three sides of us left no choice but to run
or be killed or be taken prisoners. We left our all in the hollow by the
creek and crossed the river to Smith’s division. The bridge was torn up
and when I came to the river I threw my cartridge box on my shoulder
and waded through. It was a little more than waist deep. I stayed that
night with some Sherman boys in Elder Drake’s company in the Forty-ninth
New York.

Sunday night we lay in a cornfield in the rain, without tent or
blanket. Monday we went down on the James river, lying behind batteries
to support them. Tuesday the same—six days exposed to a constant fire of
shot and shell, till almost night, when we went to the front and
engaged in another fierce conflict with the enemy. Going on to the
field, I picked up a tent and slung it across my shoulder. The folds of
that stopped a ball that would have passed through me. I picked it out,
put it in my pocket, and, after firing sixty rounds of my own and a
number of a wounded comrade’s cartridges, I came off the field unhurt,
and ready, but not anxious, for another fight.

I am reading a book on the civil war, and it mentions how taps was first known as " Butterfield's Lullaby". And meant rest for the night. Happy 4th to all!

Thanks McB!

About a month ago I went to Antietam with two of my kids and walked around the battlefield. It was your typical Maryland day, hot and humid. We did a long tour and did a lot of reading about the battle and the sacrifices that both sides made that day. The lack of food, sleeping quarters, confusion, injury, loss of friends...Really if you think about it, it's amazing of the extraordinary sacrifices man will make for their sense of freedom.

If any of you find yourself in the area of Sharpsburg, MD or Harpers Ferry, WV, I strongly encourage you to go to Antietam they have a show to watch that is very well done and the walking tour gives you a faint smell of the pie those soldiers had to eat...It's not a pie your mothers would bake, that's for damn sure.

More from 150 Years ago, the civil war; Charles Francis Adams, Sr.
Charles Francis Adams, Sr.
123people.com
Charles Francis Adams, Sr. was an American lawyer, politician, diplomat
and writer. He was the grandson of President John Adams and Abigail
Adams and the son of President John Quincy Adams and Louisa Adams [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Adams Family Letters, Charles Francis Adams, U.S. Minister to the U.K., to his son, Charles.

July 4, 2012

Adams Family Civil War letters; US Minister to the UK and his sons.

London, July 4, 1862

This detestable war is not of our own choosing, and out of it must grow
consequences important to the welfare of coming generations, not likely
to issue from a continuance of peace. All this is true, and yet here in
this lonely position of prominence among a people selfish, jealous, and
at heart hostile, it needs a good deal of fortitude to conjoin private
solicitude with the unavoidable responsibilities of a critical public
station. I had hoped that the progress of General McClellan would have
spared us much of this trouble. But it is plain that he has much of the
Fabian policy in his composition which threatens to draw the war into
greater length. Of course we must be content to take a great deal on
trust. Thus far the results have been all that we had a reasonable right
to expect. Let us hope that the delay is not without its great
purposes. My belief is unshaken that the end of this conflict is to
topple down the edifice of slavery. Perhaps we are not yet ready to come
up to that work, and the madness of the resistance is the instrument in
the hands of Divine Providence to drive us to it. It may be so. I must
hold my soul in patience, and pray for courage and resignation.

This is the 4th of July. Eighty-six years ago our ancestors staked
themselves in a contest of a far more dangerous and desperate character.
The only fault they committed was in omitting to make it more general
and complete. Had they then consented to follow Thomas Jefferson to the
full extent of his first draught of the Declaration, they would have
added little to the seven years severity of their struggle and would
have entirely saved the present trials from their children. I trust we
shall not fall into any similar mistake, and if we are tempted to do so,
I trust the follies of our enemy will avert from us the consequences of
our weakness. This is the consideration which makes me most tolerant of
the continuance of the war. I am not a friend of the violent policy of
the ultras who seem to me to have no guide but their own theories. This
great movement must be left in a degree to develope itself, and human
power must be applied solely to shape the consequences so far as
possible to the best uses. . . .

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Blog post at Daily Observations from The Civil War : London, July 4, 1862 This d..

When I belonged to a Corvette club in Maryland I put on a rally in Anteitam. It started in Frederick and pretty much followed the route the U#nion troops used to get to Sharps burg and Anteitam. I am now familiar with every patch of dirt in that battlefield. It was quite an experience.