This book or what may be written in it is dedicated to my youngest son Weldon R. Hugunin. The reason I am writing it is that, when I was a young man, I knew nothing of my relatives...nothing of their history.
Now I do not intend to make this a history, only giving a few points, and if time and strength permits write out more fully my diary kept during the War of 1861-65.
(Signed) Geo. Hugunin
My great-grandfather came from France, a Huguenot with two brothers, one settled in the South and the other two came to N.Y. living in N.Y.City where my grandfather and father were born. My grandmother was a Hollander named Garrabrant from New York. They moved to the Mohawk Valley and in or between 1803 and 1806-grandfather moved to Oswego, N.Y. with his sons Daniel, Jr., Peter D., Abraham D., Hiram, and Robert. Leonard were born there also his daughters Lucretia, Catherine and Mary and Betsy and Nancy were born there.
They all lived to an old age...the youngest dying at 73...the oldest Mary at 94 in 1888. Nancy the youngest is living at this time 1889 aged 83. Her husband was Sergt. Major in the Regular Army.
Grandmother was one of the organizers of the First Presbyterian Church of Oswego in 1816 and from then till now 1889 some of the family have been members of it.
Lucretia married John Walradt of Fulton. He was a Lieut. and Capt. during the war of 1812. Peter D. was First Judge of Oswego Co. and was Paymaster in the Army, War of 1812, he went into the rifle pits also to help defend his country. Daniel, Jr. was a Lieut. in the Regular Army under Scott; afterwards Inspector Genl. of Militia and the first Member of Congress from Oswego in 1824. He was the projector of the first pier and went to Congress and got the first appropriation for it. Abraham D. who was my father, was more of a farmer, altho he took his wife and went into the pits on the East side of the river to defend his home. After the battle he crosses the river and putting away his rifle made his way into the town through the British guard or picket that had been thrown out, and in a few hours when the guard was withdrawn was taken prisoner and taken aboard the commanding officer's vessel and finding he was acquainted with the harbor, the officer ordered him to be taken to the pilot house and to pilot the vessel out and if he ran her aground to shoot him. It was a month before he was released. The British soldiers sacked the houses, even finding a bushel basket of crockery that he had sunk in the river.
Father married fanny Boynton, daughter of Joseph Boynton of New Haven, N.Y.. They had eight children: Letitia, Maria, Ellen, Charles, Jane, Jane II, George, and Emma. We moved onto the farm in 1837.
Letitia for her first husband married J.J.Statia, whose father set him up in business but he took the money and went away...returning in a year or two but not improving. She got a divorce from him and a number of years after married Judge Henry Chase, formerly of Indiana. She has been a widow over 20 years and now resides in Oswego. Maria remains unmarried. Ellen married D.D.Gordon. None of them have children. Charles was drowned in the Humbolt River about 20 miles above the Rink Hole while on his way to Calif. about 1849. Jane died when a child. The other one who was named after her died when about 18 years old. George (myself) will receive notice further along. Emma married John Drew, then of Sheboygan, Wis. , now of Duluth, Minn. She has three children now living...Charles, John and Alice.
I will now continue with my father's family, brothers and sisters.
Hiram studied law. He had one son and three daughters. One son and one daughter are now living.
Robert during the War of 1812 was a midshipman and pilot on the lakes for the U.S.. He lived at French Creek, N.Y.. He had three girls and two sons.
Leonard was an old batch. and a great hunter. He lost his right arm by an accident, the gun accidently going off leaving only a stub of about four inches...but he learned to shoot with his left hand, by bringing the butt of the gun against the stub...and was an expert with both shotgun and rifle. I have heard him say, he would put or stand his double bbl. gun down in front of him and throw up two potatoes or apples into the air...pick up the gun and hit them both before reaching the ground. He would ride horseback and shoot deer and wolves on the run and load his rifle mounted and this was after he moved to Ill. I have heard him relate how his brother Peter D. and he went to Chicago and took the first load of wheat from there in a little vessel...upon arriving at the mouth of the river they found only a few huts, besides the old fort, Fort Dearborn, I believe, and a bar at the mouth of the river and they went into the country and hired ten or twelve yoke of oxen to pull the vessel up the river. He had a contract to build the canal for the state. The state failed or repudiated and he lost everything he had. He said he could have saved some 300,000 dol. if he had done as the state did and repudiated but he repaid his bills and came out poor. He died in Chicago.
Catherine married a Mr. Davis. H.L.Davis now of Oswego is her son and Mrs. Mary Brown. Her daughter of New York survives her.
Mary married John Grant, Jr. He was a lawyer and a Judge in Oswego Co. and was rich but failed. She died in 1888 aged 94. A very excellent woman both in times of riches and trouble. She left two sons, west somewhere, Mack and Danl. and two daughters in Oswego Mrs. Mary Bunker and Jane who is unmarried. Mary has lived in Oswego the longest the longest of any person. Eliza died unmarried. She used to be a great belle.
Nancy was born in Oswego in Sept. 1806 and is the oldest native born resident of Oswego and is living at this time Jan. 8,'89 there in good health. She has three daughters now living. Catherine a widow of F.Austin lives in Oswego. Mary wife of Col. J.O.Clark, U.S.A. now retired and Julia Parker of St.Paul, Minn.
George, son of Abram D. our ancestor (paternal) came from the nobility of France and being Huguenot had to fly for their lives. Landing in Carolina...Purrysburgh...three brothers...one remained there while in the course of time the other two got north to New York.
Now please remember I write this not from any data we have in the family but from remembered and disjointed or disconnected conversations or talks had at various and widely disconnected times running thru the course of my life with the older members of my family..traditions...yet true.
The branch of the family remaining south of course became slave holders and held up their aristocratic heads with the rest of the southern oligarchy, considering themselves a little better than common clay, exhibiting the family Coat of Arms, forgetting that all Americans are sovereigns in their own right...we incidently hear from them.
During the war a daughter of Hiram visited them at Savannah and was obliged to remain until its close.
My grandfather Daniel was born in New York City and married Miss Mary Garrabrant, a Hollander. My father Abram D. was born in Maiden Lane. They moved to the Mohawk Valley and between 1803 and 1805 to Oswego, being wealthy he had much to do with real estate and the shipping interests of the Port.
Grandfather built the house on the West bank of the river at the end of the Mohawk...it has been remodeled a few years ago, but it was a palace for many years.
Father married Miss Fanny Boynton of New Haven, Oswego Co. daughter of Joseph Boynton, a civil engineer, who had much land in that town. Boynton Hill in that town was named for him.
They were of English descent, in fact, John Farnham Boynton od Syracuse, N.Y. says he has traced the Boynton family back to 1638 with their high sounding titles and ancient nobility.
He often talks to me about their ancient titles and also the great name and titles some of their descendants now hold in England, holding vast tracts of land given to them by the King at the time of the Conquest and giving me a cut of their own Coat of Arms.
I simple tell him that the honor of being a freeborn American Citizen of these United States by the Grace of God, Free and Independent is more of an honor in my humble estimation than to wear the British Crown as we are all Sovereign here. "America tis of thee I sing."
I have not the least particle of patience with those Americans who truckle to titles.
I would say right here that grandfather owned the last slave in Oswego Co...but the bondage was very light as he had the liberty to come and go just as he pleased.
With other land father owned the land just above the post office in Oswego on First St. extending thru to Second St. and he sold half of it for $11,000 in 1836. It came back into his hands afterwards and in 1888 his heirs sold the half of it for $900 so you can see real estate has not boomed much in 68 years.
He built a frame house on the lot and all his children were born there. The house was removed in 1859 and rebuilt on a block he owned on Albany St. near 9th.
About 1835 he bought 50 acres in the woods out West 5th St. the south bounds of the city and the farms north lines join. He built a house and barnes and we moved there in 1836 and there Letitia, Ellen, and Emma were married and Jane II died.
I was a boy of seven when we moved but had already been to school and learned to read and study for at this time I had been through Peter Parleys little geography altho I wore out another book afterwards. I treasure the remembrances of Peter Parley yet. I continued to go to school in the country, which was a mile away. As I grew older, I attended the Academy in Oswego, two miles, walking down in the morning and back at night. When about fifteen I went into the city to clerk getting tired of the farm getting my board for the first six months and $25 and board the next six months, then a year for $90. When my brother went West, I returned to the farm. About this time I wanted to go to school more, and not liking to walk so far I boarded at my sisters and worked nights and Saturdays for my brother-in-law who was a harness maker for three months. When about 18 I was converted and joined the Presbyterian Church.
In the Spring before I was 21, I thought my education needed improving and persuaded father to let me go to the Homer Academy for a year where I went hiring a room and boarding myself beginning Aug. 1850. I came back to the farm at the close of the yearly term, altho I came home in the summer vacation and helped father on the farm. I had to live very cheap, paying 25 cents a week for my room with a bedstead in it. I carried my own straw tick and bed clothes buying milk, bread, crackers, and sometimes eggs and butter. I took care of a widows cow and milked it for my washing. Two of us joined together and bought a sack of flower and had a baker bake it for us at so much a lb. That winter two joined J.D.Hull and myself and got a nice large room. He lived four miles from Homer, a farmer and he brought a bed and stuff from the farm and I got other things and we lived very nicely and pleasantly together and the friendship still continues.
The first three months I had meat but once and never spoke to a girl. I went to study and did study. My studies were grammar, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, surveying, chemistry, philosophy, anatomy, physiology, hygiene, applied or agricultural chemistry, speaking and composition.
I was in my 22 year when I returned and went to work on the farm again. When I was 24 years old I told father I ought to have $100 a year which he agreed to but I was to take a colt at $38, one year old. In the spring of 1854 I bought half of a canal boat with Geo.O.Parker and all I have got to say is...I was no canaller. He ran the boat. I did go one trip late in the Fall. I bought his half, when I should have sold mine to him. I never got out clear.
I always attended the Sabbath School at Oswego and as it was held at nine o'clock in the morning I always walked down, sometimes when late in doing chores and getting breakfast, go on without my breakfast as there were two services; one at 10:30 and one at one o'clock the older ones came down to the first service, bringing our dinner and staying to afternoon meeting and when we children got older we often drove down in the morning. It was a pretty long day.
When I was 22, I was elected collector of the school district. This was my first office. Then I was elected Pathmaster for two years.
The Presidential election occurred in Nov. 1848 when Jack Taylor was elected, but as I did not become of age until Dec. 11, I could not vote. I was a Whig tho. So my first vote was cast for Gen. Scott in 1852, then Fillmore in 1856, A.Lincoln in 1860, Lincoln 1864, Grant in 1868 and 72, Hays in 1876, Garfield in1880, Blaine in 1884, and Harrison in 1888.
Dec. 11, 1864 was my 25th birthday which came on Monday...on the next day the 12th I was married to Miss Huldah McChesney of Richland, Oswego Co., N.Y.. She was a daughter of William McChesney and sister to Wm.Jr. and James now of Oswego and Geo.H.McChesney now in the lumber trade at Syracuse.
We went for our wedding trip to New York and visited the first Crystal Palace Then to Elizabeth City and Mount Holly, N.J.
The morning we started was very cold with about 2 feet of snow. When we returned in about two weeks the snow was all gone and the weather warm.
In the Spring of 1855 father moved into the city into one of his houses on the corner of West 6th and Oneida St. and which was given to Maria who lives there now, Jan. 16,'89. I stayed on the farm. He was to have anything off the farm as wood, meat, vegetables, etc. he wanted for family for free.
George H. McChesney came and stayed with us that Summer and Winter and the next Summer and went to school. He was about 13.
I wanted more pasturing and so rented quite a large unoccupied and run down farm nearby and which had a large wood lot. I was to have all down timber. I made a good thing out of that but the next year it was sold. I also rented another farm close by for pasture and there was a house on this which I rented. I was to have the wood that was down also on this. I got wood enough to pay the rent. Many old hemlock trees covered with moss on the outside were perfectly sound under the bark.
The Summer of 1856 father went West on a visit and when he came home, the difference in the looks of crops between the West and the East he thought it would be better to sell the farm and for me to go West and between then and Spring it was sold. That Winter the one of '56 and '57 was a very hard one and the snow was three to 4 feet deep. A very heavy wind blew down a large number of maple trees and I had them cut up into cord wood many of them two and 3 ft. though were so twisted and snarled by frequent tapping that a few logs at the butt had to be blasted open.
I hired a man from the city to chop, and as he had to come someways and the weather was so cold and he was so poor, I agreed to give him $20 a cord and give him his dinner. He came on and I went to the lot and showed him the trees, got him started and returned to the house. He was regular at his dinner and was a very hearty eater, then away to the woods again. It ran along two or three days so I thought I would go up and see how he got along. He had cut only two or three logs off, but he was getting his board, his dinner lasted him all day. He would go into the wood near noon and then for dinner, then to the woods and home.
I drew out enough wood and piled it side the road handy to last father two years. The next Spring, 1857 we sold the farm for $5000. $1000 down and the bal. in two equal annual payments. Father gave me $1000 to start and see what I could do.
My wife and baby, Henry who was born Aug. 31, 1856 went to her fathers and I went to Iowa with three or four others. One of the parties stopped at Manitowao on Lake Mich. above Milwaukee, a great lumbering district to keep a general store including whiskey. They wished me to go in with them, but I could not sell whiskey and so refused and went on with another party into Iowa, where one of them had prospected the year before, and were about laying out a town on a beautiful piece of ground, rolling prairie and timber in Linn Co. on the Wapsapinacon River, a beautiful swift stream. There being a railroad already staked out through it, I decided to stop there and go in with the others. One of them was a civil so we spent most of the Summer in surveying the plot, mapping and placing corner stones, etc.
I returned in the Fall and immediately came down with the fever and ???. I got better and returned with my wife and baby in Nov.and immediately went to building a house, or rather finishing it for I had got it up and enclosed before I went East for my family.
I got into it in the Spring of 1858. When we first went there, we found a rough building occupied as a store but he moved away that Fall, so I bought some goods and farmed it some but no railroad came and rumors began to get around that it was doubtful about its coming.
Charles, our 2nd son was born here ( we had named our new city Central City which name it now bears), he lived only four days. John was born here also on June 27, 1859.
In the Fall father was sick and wanted me to come down and see him, so I made arrangements by selling some things and leaving others and came with my family east in the Fall, fully expecting to go back in the Spring, but I have been back since. When I came home for my family, I found the financial crash of '57 had stopped nearly all business East and when I returned with another $2000 business was stagnant.
During 1859 a gentleman came to Central City and built a large flour mill three or four stories high, we already had a nice dam and sawmill. A man built a house to rent and two or three of us persuaded him to only enclose it and we would hire it for a schoolhouse and church at $50 a year.
I was a Presbyterian and one that went there from Oswego was a Baptist and the wife of another was a Methodist and there were other ones scattered around within 4 miles of all these sects. Our village appeared to be in the center and school houses were scattered around at about equal distance of about 4 miles and we could generally have a meeting in some one of these every Sunday. So we wished to start one in our village. Then when we attended one of these in other meetings we would try to get the preacher to give an appointment for our place. Sometimes we would have to wait 3 or 4 weeks before he could get around to us. They were poor earnest prayerful men, many times ignorant. We finally got apportioned into a school dist. and had a school and after a while got a Congregationist minister located 12 miles away to come once a month to preach. He was an educated man from one of the Eastern states and we soon organized a church with 10 or 12 members. I was one of the Deacons. We had a union Sabbath school which all attended old and young and I sent East and raised from our old church $10 for a library. There are at present I believe 2 churches and 2 or 3 stores and some 5 or 600 hundred inhabitants.
The railroads...oh, one was built to the north...one to starting from that to the east ran diagnolly southwest about 10 miles off another to the west about 10 miles so we were left in a triangle and Central City about it's center.
We came east in the Fall of '59 and father died in Feb.'60 and one thing and another has prevented me from returning altho I dearly like the west. I traded my house and lot for a farm and 5 or 6 years afterwards sold the farm for $2000 and 3 or 4 years ago the balance of my village property for $300 dollars and taking it all together I think I got out of it quite lucky.
After father died my means were all tied up in my western property but $1000 the last payment on the farm and I went into partnership in a grocery. I did not know anything about that business and money was tight and trade poor, and we only lasted about a year and I had nothing...except the fever and ague which still held on to me and that summer I was very much afflicted with it and I was laid up a good deal of the time. The chills were dreadful and I always had to go to bed and then the fever and night sweats. The sweat would wet the feather bed clean through, finally the Dr. gave me two emetics and told me to go home and when I felt the chills coming on to take one and in an hour the other which I did. The first one vomited me very bad but I thought I must take the other one and did...well...I can say I never had it again. The Dr. afterwards told me he would not have let me take the second one if he had been there. They nearly killed me.
In the Fall and Winter of 1860-61 I worked for F.L.Jenkins and Co. on and off repacking white fish and getting an insight to the business and in the Spring of 1961 I read an offer from Smith and Rigland of Toronto, Canada to go up on the Georgian Bay and take charge of their fishery which lay at the western end of the bay and was about 100 miles square in which were a number of islands including Lonely Horse and Club isle. I went by way of Toronto to Collingwood by rail thence 150 miles by steam boat. On the way to Shebanawning which is the entrance to the way to the Straight of Soo St. Main, the steamboat passes Lonely Horse which is 50 miles from there. It blew its whistle and stopped as the Indians in a Mockinan boat put off to take Mr.Smith and myself on board and thence to the island. Mr.Smith, the senior partner, went along to introduce me and helped me to start. They rent these fisheries from the Canadian Government who holds all the fisheries and have certain laws to govern them.
The fish are caught by the Indians and half-breeds living on the islands and main shore. They live on the islands only in summer. We made our home and headquarters on Club Island, which is about 2 to 3 miles in diameter but has a splendid harbor on it's north side. There is a sand beach of several rods in with, running like a natural pier from opposite sides stopping midway abruptly leaving a channel of some 100 ft. wide and 30 deep like the mouth of a river...then inside, swelling out into the bay of more than one half of a mile in diameter and 25 to 50 feet deep and surrounded by woods on three sides making a splendid harbor with good gravel anchorage. On one of these bars we built a house and dock, store for we had a stock of generalities, dry goods, and groceries, flour, pork. We had an Indian cooper to make barrels.
The Indians would come in and say we want such a number of barrels and with a certain number of empty barrels of course was included a certain amount of salt at the same time perhaps and most always would want a piece of pork and flour, etc. These were charged to them and when they would return to their fishing grounds and when their nills were filled would return, when we would pay them $4 a barrel in goods and they would get another supply and so it would go.
After the fish had stood about 20 days long in their first salt, they have to be all taken out and repacked and carefully examining each fish to see if it was hard and brined. Fish will not keep in their first salting. I did not get away from there until December and the snow over a foot deep. It is a very wild country and I was glad when I got on dry land again.
That winter I got but little to do, and as my wages on the islands were only $35 per month and board. That is the company found flour, pork, coffee, etc. and what I wanted to eat I cooked or did without, but I borrowed a small stove with an oven and as I had brought some yeast with me I made bread and pies and like very nicely. But as I was going to say I got but little to do and my wages about used up, when I hired out to C.C.Petty to look after his wood chopping and collect for him. He had bought the wood southwest of the city on the Van Buren tract and I measured the wood and saw to the drawing of it. Also on a tract in Soriba where he was getting out bolts for his cooper shop in Oswego. In the spring of 1862 he asked me to go into his shop as foreman. As I had never seen a barrel made I was surprised and told him I thought I was not competent but he said he would risk me. He was paying a cooper $1 per day for it and I told him I should do it for $1.25 and he accepted. I had to receive and deliver stock to the men, inspect the barrels and ship them looking after everything. For this reason I had to be there early and late and the shop was a very large one.
In August of this year 1862 I began to enlist a company for the war. Mr. Petty entreated me not to go nor to leave him but I felt I could not stay longer home and so started and 6 or 8 of the best men in the shop went with me and the remaining men in the shop presented me with a sword, sash, and belt.
I knew little about the military and so accepted the 1st Lieutenancy and Capt. John McKinlock, 2nd Lieut. Edward Crejware and we began enlisting for the 110th Regt.N.S.G.rolls but when almost full some other organization consolidated and so filled up the compliment of the Regt. and our company was left on the grounds recently occupied by the 110th became Co."A" of the next regiment, the 147th, which was soon filled and on the 25th day of Sept. 1862 we were mustered as a regiment into the service of the United States for three years unless sooner discharged. On the 27th we took our departure for Elmira via Seneca Lake where we received our arms and equipments and immediately went on to Baltimore. I was detained to stay behind and pick up our stragglers at Elmira. I picked up all I could find and next morning proceeded on my way. The regiment has stopped at Baltimore and was put in camp in one of the parks and found there the 110th Regt.. that night. The boys of both Regt. had a gay old time as the 110 had been there long enough to learn something of the ropes and altho the sentries had strict orders not to pass anyone, nearly the whole of the two Regt. were soon downtown. I arrived about 10 o'clock in the morning and met the Regt. first marching out to take the cars for Washington.
We got there about sundown and were quartered at the "soldiers rest" barracks near the station and then were marched to supper. The supper room was a long low building with rough board tables put on supports, the entire length of it and the supper...oh dear..the tables were damp and greasy with the almost innumerable suppers of the boys that had gone before us. On these bare rough boards were placed a slice of bread and then came another man with large dishes of salt beef. Cold, it had been steamed sometimes, no coffee, so I "rustled" around and found the kitchen and demanded coffee and cups. After some delay I procured a pail of some concoction and some tin cups and had my Co. attended to. It was the poorest meal I think we ever had in our three years of service or we realized it the more as we were just from home and not used to such food. As we all had some money most of the officers and many of the men went out into the city and got supper, returning to sleep with our men. In the morning we marched over the long bridge past Arlington and camped for a few days then back over to Aqueduct through Georgetown to Linnallytown some five miles from Georgetown, where we were set to work making rifle pits, forts and roads. We had little company drills but no battalion drill. In November we were ordered to get ready to move and as our Quartermaster was sick I was detailed to take his place. We were allowed six mule teams to the Regt. but when we came to move we found that they would not begin to be enough. We were ordered to move over the east branch and out and down towards Port Tobacco some five miles out. We were to meet two or three other Regt's and form a Provisional Brigade. So I went to the Quartermaster General's office and asked for 40 wagons, a year afterward I would not have had the hardihood to have done so, as about that time our teams were cut down to three teams and we got along first rate. They gave me a train which was 25 six-mule teams. Then we went to the Commissary General and got five more for coming stores which made our wagon train 31 teams. The other Regt. was short of rations and we had to feed them. We arrived at or near Port Tobacco and ferried across in the night to Acquia Creek. That night it came on to rain sleet and froze. We had little shelter tents but had not learned to use them and were soaked and the mud was deep so we spent most of the time cutting wood and building fires. Our Regt. was broken up...some companies being sent to Falmouth with Maj. Miller who was Provost Marshall and some to Brooks Station to guard a bridge, and after the Battle of Fredericksburg Dec. 11, 12, 13 we were all assembled in Falmouth Station directly across from Fredericksburg, Falmouth proper was about two miles north. In a short time we were again moved to Bells Plains.
(A piece of cloth is pasted on page, with the following note: "This is a piece of the National Colors of the 147th Regt N.Y.S. rolls carried by the Regt at the Battle of Gettysburg where 3 color bearers were shot under it and the Regt lost 79 men killed).
Jan. 30, 1863. We went on the Burnside and march and were in the First Corps, Maj.Gen Reynolds, First Div.Comd.Wadsworth, Third Brigade Gen. Paul. The third day we returned to our old camp. My Captain being detained at Headquarters I was relieved as Quartermaster to command my Co.on this march.
Gen.Hooker now commanded the Army. A great many army officers resigned after this march having had enough of soldiering.
May 2, '63. We marched to Franklin Crossing below Fredericksburg, ours was the first Regt that crossed the bridge but another Regt had crossed in boats. We were shelled here and as it was the first time we ever heard them we were pretty nervous. The Regt lost three men by one shell. When the Regt was turned at Chancellorville the First Corp was ordered up there and we were hurried along, and the weather being very warm the men suffered very much.
We did not get engaged at Chancellorville and recrossed to Falmouth. We laid up till June 12, '63 and my diary says left camp near Falmouth, June 12.'63 marched 24 miles on the Warrenton Pike and camped for the night.
June 13th. Shortly after dinner we continued the march but were soon halted and formed on three sides of a square to witness a military execution. A man was shot for desertion. We marched to Liberty near Catlette Station. Our whole Corp are on the march.
At Chancellorsville we were doubled quick and the weather being very warm, we were very much heated up and when we halted I laid upon the wet ground as it was raining and I caught cold, which resulted in chronic diarrhea, and on this march I was very much troubled with it, as I could eat no thing and consequently was weak.
1863 (Sunday) We are again on the march & went till 9 o'clock Monday morning, when we halted 2 hours for breakfast at Manassas Junction. Last night after making some tea from water taken from a hole, I found by feel as it was so dark we could not see, and soon after drinking it I felt sick at my stomach, but marched all night with my co. till we rested this morning when in conjunction with my diarrhea a fever set in and I was obliged to take an ambulance or rather crawl into the end of an old Army wagon.
Monday, June 14. Reached Centerville & camped all day Tuesday.
June 17. Resumed the march on the Leesburgh Pike the weather very warm, many of the men being sun struck. I rode in the ambulance today being too weak too walk, have eaten nothing for 3 days. The country thro which we passed was beautiful. Forts lined the way from Manasses Junction to Centerville & also on this side. We are now camped at Herndon alongside of the Leesburgh & Alexandria Railroad in a beautiful meadow and a nice breeze coming up just at night making it very refreshing. (copied from diary)
Thursday, June 18. Laid still all day, the men enjoying them selves rambling in the adjacent woods & bathing in the splendid brook close by towards night begun to rain and rained nearly all night.
19th. Were ordered to be ready to march at daylight, but did not till 10 o'clock & then moved about 4 miles and camped on a bottom meadow with the railroad on one side & woods on the two other sides, rained all night. I am marching again...am no better only rested.
Saturday, June 20, 1863. Ordered up at 2 o'clock to be ready to march at daylight, but did not till towards night, when the rain began again. My diarrhea continues making me very weak, & all the medicine I received is a few opium and camphor pills. The Dr.(Col.) reported me for duty. It almost seems an officer has no right to be sick in the army, as he has no claim on the hospital he has to lay languishing in his quarters with no attendance and will not be sent to the officers hospital as long as there is any hope of his living in camp. The Drs. appear to think that by keeping a man in camp while sick is showing their acumen and skill, in trying to make a man believe he is not sick, thinking perhaps he does not know himself.
When an officer is sent to the hospital he is charged for his board. In the beginning of the war it was 50 cents a day but in 1864 when I laid wounded at City Point, Va. I had to pay 1.50 per day. All officers have to pay for all their own rations at any time. They do not draw rations like the men from Uncle Sam but must come down with the cash & it came mighty hard with some of us, when we were not paid for 4 months and one time 8 months. After sending some home to our families we often had to beg of our men, but I never suffered as I took good care of our men & they reciprocated.
June 25-(Copied from Diary). A pain in my side became so bad that about midnight I hunted up the Dr. and he put on a mustard blister 6x12 in. telling me to take it off in half an hour but I was so wore out that when the pain ceased I was sound asleep and did not wake till towards morning, when according to his directions I slipped it further around towards my back and slept again, till roused by revellie when I found a blister a foot square on my side & the Regt with orders to march, I could not carry my sword nor blanket and so put them in one of the wagons & never saw them again. I got into an ambulance with 2 others which just filled it full but as my blister had not been dressed nor pricked & I did not know enough to prick it I rode all day laying on one side & the water-nearly a teacupful-swashing around as the whole skin a foot square was loose. The pain was terrible. We crossed the Potomac at Edwards Ferry and marched 10 miles. That night I had my blister pricked and dressed, which ought to have been done in the morning. Marched to Jefferson a nice litle village in the beautiful valley of the Cumberland and have eaten nothing for 2 days. 26th. Marched about 15 miles towards Harpers Ferry & camped. Sunday 27th. Remained in camp till 3 o'clock when the long roll beat and we were soon under arms and marched 8 miles to Frederick City, Md. and camped for the night. I made an application to be sent to the hospital & as we lay here was examined by the Div. Surgeon who roundly rated Surgeon Cole for not sending me away before and on the 29th of June I was ordered to report to Asst. Surgeon Weir at U.S.Hospital at Frederick City, Md. & forthwith so reported.
June 29th. First Corps to which we belonged began moving towards Gettysburg as I left today.July 1st. We, that is all in hospital, are ordered to Baltimore. When we came 3 days ago there were only 30 patients but now about 800. About 25 being officers. It was 5 months before I recovered enough to go back. I had been promoted to Capt. May 5, '63 but the commission got pigeon-holed somewhere at one of the Headquarters, and I was discharged as 1st Lieut. Nov. 5,'63 for disability & while my Capt. was waiting for me a new commission as Capt. was sent me dated Nov.5,'63 & I was mustered Jan. 22,'64.
In 1887 I got the War Dept. to correct my rank on both these comm's to date back from date & I was at Baltimore some 6 weeks & my wife came down to nurse me I rec'd A Leave of Absence for 60 days & had to have it renewed. I was so bad that my legs swelled like dropsey and I tried baths with good effect and then started on my return stopping at Burkesville, I think a water cure in Penn. up on the mountains. I stayed there a few weeks and then went on to Convalescent Camp Annapolis and was there about a month. My diarrhea had ceased, but I was very emaciated. The spring of "63 I weighed 160 lbs. and now not over 100. I was 5 ft. 8 3/4 ins. high and measured 38 in. around my chest. Here I began to eat and gained a pound a day for some time, but my muscles were not strong and my knees gave out. I had to be careful in walking for if my foot struck an obstruction I would fall down. In going on stairs I had to be very watchful or I would fall. In Oct. I made application to return to my Regt. and was ordered, but on arriving at Brandy Station where they were camped, found the whole army had vanished, gone to Mine Run and nobody could tell me where they were so I had to return to Washington and found I had been discharged as a 1st Lieut. So I settled up my acct. with the Dept. & and went home to wait till the army came in sight. In Dec. I rec'd a letter from Col. F.C.Miller comdg. ordering me to report for duty as there was a Capt. comm. awaiting me, so Jan.4, '64 I started for Washington and my Regt. at Culpepper, Va. I had to be then to see if I was sound and fit for duty & was passed but when I went to be mustered on the Capt. comm. the mustering officer would not accept it as it was on probation and as I had been discharged and became a citizen I had to send to New York State for a new comm. & I had to wait for it. It came & I went to the Regt. to be mustered but the mustering officer was away and I was sent out on picket with 400 men for 3 days. They would not even give me time to get a house.
As soon as I got in I began to build my shanty. I had been assigned to Co. E. They would take a team and go into the woods for logs, we would build up a log house for about 3 or 4 ft. then cover it with a shelter tent for a roof. Mine was 8x12 ft. and in one end was the door and in the other my bunk. I cut a hole in one side and got some stone and built a fireplace & chimney of sticks & a barrel on top, the inside of the chimney being plastered with mud. On the other side of the house was my table and cupboard. My men worked & I worked and soon had a nice quarters. To show that it was sometimes cold in Va. I will relate a circumstance, but will wait till I come to it in my diary.
Jan. 20,1864. (will now resume from my diary). Was oficer of the day, cannot get time to muster, I guess they are going to make me make up for the time I was absent. I am building a shanty.
Feb.6. Reville beat at 6 o'clock A.M. and an orderly immediately came around and informed the commandants of companies that we would march in half an hour with 3 days rations and shelter tents, baggage to packed and sent to the Quartermaster to be taken to Culpepper. We had to fly around to get rations for the men & ourselves, pack our baggage, take off our rooks and etc. but we learned to do things quickly and are soon ready and marched towards Mortons Ferry on the Rafidan. Within a few miles we heard cannonading and were marched down into a swamp where the water was from 6 in. to a foot deep all over, and told to make ourselves comfortable. We knew by that, that we were to remain there close to the river for some days. There happened to be a large quantity of rails just split laying around in the swamp so we took and laid them across logs & put brush on top and soon had quite a good place, building our fires on the stumps. My co. was just settling down to comfort after wringing out their stockings and holding them on the fire to dry when orders came to me to take 3 companies back to the hard ground and guard the ambulances and artillery. We were better off than those down in the swamp for we could walk around without walking in the water, but as it rained all the while we were wet through.
Feb. 7,1864. Foggy in the morning but cleared off early and was very pleasant. We laid by the ambulances and battery till sundown when orders came to pack up and return to camp where we arrived at 9 o'clock at night, tired, hungry, dirty & the officers roofless as all our baggage and shelter tents merely were packed up and taken to Culpepper for safety. The mud and darkness were about the same -thick and deep, and as the weather had turned cold we-the officers, passed a very uncomfortable night.